Tom Aspinall is done waiting around for Jon Jones.
For over a year, the MMA media cycle has been dominated by the long and sordid saga of Aspinall and Jones, and if the two UFC heavyweight champions will ever unify their titles. Lately, Jones has leaned all the way in on trolling Aspinall over the delays in booking, and now Aspinall is striking back.
On Monday, Aspinall told Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen on their Good Guy/Bad Guy show that he’s done waiting around for Jones, who he says is retired from the game.
“Jon’s retired,” Aspinall said. “What are you talking about? You guys don’t follow Jon on social media? The guy is living his best life. He’s had a fantastic career, we all know. We know Jon’s a religious man, so I want to say God bless him moving forward, what he does in his life and his career, and we move on. We move on. I’m the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. I’m ready to take on all comers, get this division moving again. Us guys have been waiting around too long. The guys, contenders are getting sick of it, everybody’s getting sick of it, even the fans are getting sick of it. Jon’s retired and it’s time that we move on.”
While Jones hasn’t officially retired, he also doesn’t appear to be close to fighting anytime soon. The former UFC light heavyweight champion has been open that he’s not sure if he wants to fight again and insists he’s just out there living his best life. And for Aspinall, that pretty much confirms it.
“If one guy is thinking about retiring, he’s retired,” Aspinall said. “I ain’t thinking about retiring. I’m thinking about getting this division active, making the heavyweight division great again, getting these big fights in, fighting these contenders who are sat on the sidelines waiting for over a year at this point. I’m here to fight, man.”
Aspinall is currently the longest-reigning interim champion in UFC history, at just short of 600 days. And while some people might be upset about waiting that long for a shot at an all-time great like Jones, Aspinall doesn’t mind. He’s just ready to get on with things, and he says that will happen soon.
“I’m not looking to fight Jon Jones,” Aspinall said. “I’m looking to fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship. That’s what I want to be. I want to be the UFC undisputed heavyweight champion. I see a lot of people comparing me to Michael Chandler. Michael Chandler waited for a long time for Conor McGregor. I’m not waiting for one fight. I’m not trying to fight one guy. I’m trying to fight all the guys. I’m trying to be the guy at heavyweight who takes out everybody.
“It doesn’t matter who it is. Ciryl Gane, [Alexander] Volkov rematch, [Jailton] Almeida, Derrick Lewis, Brock Lesnar, whoever it is, I don’t care. I want to fight everybody, and I want to fight as much as possible, get some excitement back in this division. Let’s not talk about Jon Jones anymore. All the best, the guy’s living his best life. Full respect to him, wish him all the best in the future, he deserves all the money and success that he gets. I’m the active guy, I’m going to fight somebody, and that’s going to be announced pretty soon.”
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