UFC 317 is just around the corner with no main event in sight, and Din Thomas hopes the the organization has a plan.
The UFC analyst recently spoke to MMA Junkie and shared his thoughts on how the June 28 pay-per-view event in Las Vegas - which headlines UFC’s annual International Fight Week - can be set if the matchmakers can line up interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall for the card.
Aspinall - the No. 1 heavyweight in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings - currently awaits his next assignment after successfully defending his interim title against Curtis Blaydes in July 2024. Since winning that belt at UFC 295, he has set his sights on undisputed champion Jon Jones, who has frequently stated he is not interested in fighting the British star.
Jones or not, Thomas believes UFC 317 should be built around Aspinall.
“I’m thinking you have to go Tom Aspinall somewhere in this,” Thomas said. “You have to. How do you not go with the heavyweight champion of the world? He wants to fight in the summer. I’m thinking you have to go Tom Aspinall somewhere. Now whether that’s Jon Jones, Ciryl Gane, Derrick Lewis, I don’t know which one, but it’s got to be Tom Aspinall vs. somebody for International Fight Week to kick things off.”
“I think they convince Tom Aspinall to fight Ciryl Gane,” Thomas later added. “I think if I had to put my money on it, I think that’s the one... we’re two months out and I think they’ll throw a number at Ciryl Gane. It won’t be ideal for him, but they’ll throw a number that he can’t refuse and he’ll have to take it and I think it makes more sense that way.”
Aspinall and Gane have also gone back-and-forth publicly about a potential matchup, though nothing has materialized on that front either. Gane is currently on a two-fight win streak, with his most recent outing this past December seeing him eke out a controversial split decision over Alexander Volkov.
The last time fans saw Jones, he was making light work of all-time heavyweight great Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 this past November. Jones and Miocic were supposed to fight in November 2024, but a pectoral injury put Jones on the shelf. The UFC kept the matchup locked in, leaving Aspinall and the rest of the heavyweight division to wait for Jones’ return for their shot at the undisputed title.
Currently, it’s unclear whether a Jones vs. Aspinall matchup is being held up by Jones’ demands for more money and preparation time, the UFC simply not booking the fight, or an issue on Aspinall’s side. Jones needing more time to get ready for Aspinall is one excuse Thomas is not buying.
“There’s no way Jon Jones accepts that fight,” Thomas said. “But here’s the thing, he says he needs more time to prepare. It’s not like he didn’t know about this for the last two years. We knew about this before the Stipe fight that he’d eventually have to fight Tom Aspinall. How has he not been preparing for this if he had any idea in his head that he was going to have this fight? He has to be ready in his head that this was going to happen.
“So the more and more time that passes, the more and more I think that Jon is just pulling us along and may not ever take this fight.”
Jones has previously stated he would like “f*ck you” money to accept a fight with Aspinall, which complicates any potential negotiations. Thomas, a veteran of 36 pro bouts, doesn’t blame Jones for knowing his worth.
“That’s the problem with fighter leverage,” Thomas said. “As a fighter, you go through so much to get to where you are, wherever that is, and when you can really start to call your own shots, think about all the guys who’ve had the leverage and it’s only a few of them. Conor McGregor being one, Jon Jones being the other, and once they’re in a position to where they can string you along, they’re going to do it. They’re going to go, ‘You know what? After all you guys put me through, y’all going to feel this one.’
“And they’ve put us through it. Jon has strung us along, Conor has strung us along, and now we’ve got to sit and eat it because we done gave these guys all the leverage. They done got all the cards in their hands.”
Thomas was also asked about a recent ESPN MMA graphic that dubiously touted the length of Jones’ heavyweight championship reign. Not only did the statistic seemingly ignore the existence of interim champion Aspinall, it also fails to mention that Jones has only defended his title once.
“Undisputed?” Thomas said. “And the longest reign? The way we can kind of manipulate numbers to make something seem great. I’m not hating, I’ve just got to call it like it is. I’ve always got to call it like it is. I’m not hating. I love Jon. I think he is the greatest of all time. But it don’t last forever. Your reign doesn’t last forever. And then when it’s over, you can kind of massage the numbers to make them seem greater and that’s exactly what we’re doing here.
“We’re manipulating these stats and the situation and the narrative to make it seem better than it is, but the reality is, he fought Stipe and he got the title from Ciryl Gane, who was deathly afraid of him. He hasn’t been on this run of heavyweights where he’s been tearing guys up.”
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