Tom Aspinall tells Jon Jones: "Fight me or retire"

Tom Aspinall insists UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones has to fight him or retire as the wait for their expected superfight goes on.

It’s been years in the making, but the world is still waiting to see Jones and Aspinall meet in the Octagon, though Aspinall remains positive that the two will face off in the next few months.

Aspinall tore through the heavyweight division following his move to the UFC and looked destined for the top before being struck down by a knee injury seconds into his fight with Curtis Blaydes.

Aspinall spent a year outside of the Octagon but came back to beat Marcin Tybura before taking the interim heavyweight crown against Sergei Pavlovich while Jones waited for his bout with Stipe Miocic.

Aspinally made the unusual move of defending his interim title while the wait for Jones v Miocic went on, beating Blaydes in their rematch.

Jones beat Miocic and the fight to be the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion is all that’s left to make, but Aspinall is keen to ensure his time out of the Octagon doesn’t last too much longer.

“I think people think I’m a YouTuber these days! I’m still a cage fighter as far as I’m aware,” said Aspinall to Adam Catterall on One On One.

“It’s only been seven months, so it’s not too long but I want to fight, absolutely I want to fight. I’m trying to look at it as a positive because it’s pretty much out of my hands, I can’t really control what’s going on and this time I have religiously been in the gym.

“I’m not one of these guys who gets out of the gym; we’ve had a lot of guys in the gym who are in training camp so I’ve just been cracking on with them, I’ve been doing the sparring, the heavy grappling, the S&C [strength and conditioning], I’ve been working on my technique, so I feel like my level has come on a lot in the time I’ve not been fighting.

“I’ve had long breaks before, I had a three-year break before I was in the UFC, then I was off with the knee for a year. I think I’m one of them people who thinks, ‘it’s working out for me’, I try think that way.

“The UFC seem pretty positive every time I speak to them that the fight’s going to happen and now they’re saying the summertime, so I’m just waiting on a date. Dana White came out and said Jon Jones is happy to do it.

“If he does, good, if he doesn’t, I’ll fight somebody else, whatever – for the undisputed.”

“There’s nowhere to go for Jon. He either has to fight me or retire now, and if he does retire, everyone will know that he’s been avoiding me. There isn’t another fight for Jon at the moment.”

There were suggestions that Jones could target a fight with then-UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira if the Brazilian defended his title against Magomed Ankalaev, but his unanimous decision defeat has put paid to that notion – an outcome that Aspinall admits has worked out well for him.

“You know that Jon’s phone got whizzed across the room on Saturday night! He was there ready to tweet [his intention to fight Pereira]! Head in the hands and everything,” said Aspinall.

“I would never, ever, ever celebrate somebody’s loss. I’m an Alex Pereira fan, I love his style and I respect where he’s come from, but that couldn’t have happened at a better time for me personally.”

On Pereira’s loss, Aspinall believes the Brazilian’s performance hinted at weaknesses in his ground game.

Aspinall said: “We’ve seen him in there with a couple of grapplers, and when I say grapplers I don’t mean pure grapplers; guys who are more grappling-heavy than a lot of the pure strikers he’s been fighting.

“When he’s been there against Jan Blachowicz who can wrestle really well, and Ankalaev, he freezes up and I think I’m not out of order saying that. He looks really stiff in there, he doesn’t get his shots off the same, he doesn’t throw them with the same disregard for his opponents; he looks really stiff and tentative.

“He obviously still has some discrepancies in his grappling that he’s not very confident about because when he’s in there with someone who he feels a threat of a takedown against, he stiffens up.

“The takedown defence was on point; I think what he struggles with is the fear of getting put on his back. Not the fear, but he just doesn’t want to get put on his back because he knows he’s not up to scratch there.”

Pereira’s defeat closed off the only potential avenue for Jones to fight someone other than Aspinall, though the Englishman still isn’t certain as to whether the fight will go ahead.

When asked if he believes the fight will happen, Aspinall replied “I don’t know. I want it to, obviously. I’ve been talking about it for two years now.

“In all honesty, I’ve been in rooms with the UFC brass – Dana [White], Hunter [Campbell] – a few times, and they’ve told me it’s happening and that’s all I can go off.

“I get tagged in articles on social media, I hear rumours on the street, but the people who know are the UFC brass, and when I’ve sat down and spoken to them, they’re confident it’ll happen, so I trust it’s going to happen.

“I see people saying ‘you’re just doing what Michael Chandler did to McGregor, you need to take another fight’. Listen, I’m not chasing Jon Jones. Chandler was trying to get the big fight with McGregor because McGregor’s a big name, but the reason I want to fight Jon Jones is because he’s got the belt.

“I’d be doing the same if it was anybody. What I’m after is being known as the number one heavyweight walking around on planet Earth.”

Liam Williams

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