Tom Aspinall was in attendance at UFC London over the weekend, and the UFC interim heavyweight champion has since revealed that he attended a meeting with UFC President Dana White, along with other officials from the organization.
Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) won the interim title in November of 2023 by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich (19-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) at Madison Square Garden, and has spent his time since then chasing a title unification bout against Jon Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC).
"Bones" returned from a year-long injury-induced hiatus in November, finishing former heavyweight title holder Stipe Miocic (20-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC) at UFC 309.
Jones has repeatedly shied away from the idea of facing Aspinall, but Dana White revealed in an interview with TNT Sports over the weekend that the fight is very close to being finalized.
While waiting for his opportunity to face Jones, Aspinall successfully defended his interim belt at UFC 304 last year when he knocked out Curtis Blaydes. Speaking during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show on Monday, the Brit confirmed that he has told the UFC he won't be defending that belt again, and that he will only fight for the undisputed title against Jones, or anybody else the UFC chooses to put in front of him.
"That is correct", Aspinall said when Helwani asked if this was the case. "That is correct. Yeah. The UFC know where I stand with that. And that is correct".
"Some Big News Is Coming"
"We had a fantastic meeting. Everything went amazing", Aspinall told Helwani. "I understand my position now. I understand what the company is doing now. And you've got to stay tuned, my friend, because there's some big news coming".
Helwani pointed out to Aspinall that Dana White had sounded confident in his interview with TNT Sports that negotiations for the title unification bout were moving in the right direction, something the interim champion agreed with. "I think that's fair", he repsonded. "That's fair to say. That's definitely fair to say".
