Tom Aspinall probably won’t be fighting Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
It’ll take either heavyweight champion Jon Jones or challenger Stipe Miocic to fall out of the fight on Friday or Saturday — these things happen in MMA — but even the Englishman serving as the backup fighter this weekend knows how unlikely it is.
That didn’t stop fans at Thursday night’s UFC 309 press conference from roaring with approval at UFC CEO Dana White’s decree: “The winner should absolutely fight Tom.”
That reaction, which was followed immediately by a vociferous “Tommy” chant — and capped by Jones playfully telling the masses at The Theater at MSG to “knock it off” — is a testament to how much Aspinall has endeared himself to UFC fans in the 12 months since winning the interim heavyweight title at the Garden, especially in the last week as Jones as sought to justify why he has no interest in a title unification with Aspinall.
“I’m very lucky in the fact that a lot of people see what’s happened and what’s going on and they realize it, which is nice,” Aspinall told The Post during a visit to its video studio, hours before the adulation in his name — for which he was not on stage to receive. “I don’t really have to do a whole lot. I don’t have to come over here and make a big sing and dance about the whole thing because my name’s already getting brought up so much by media and fans and stuff. It’s cool. It’s nice.”
Two things have been made clear since Aspinall (15-3, 15 finishes) knocked out Sergei Pavlovich to win the interim title — created when Jones tore a pectoral muscle last fall less than two weeks before he was originally to face Miocic:
- Aspinall has done all he can to get the attention of Jones and lock in a shot at becoming the undisputed champion.
- More than facing Jones, Aspinall’s true desire is undisputed status, however that may come to pass.
If that means going through Jones and testing himself against the legendary light heavyweight, who moved up to heavyweight and won in March 2023 the title Francis Ngannou vacated when he entered free agency, then that’s all right by him.
If undisputed status comes through the winner of Jones-Miocic relinquishing the title, that works, too.
“I would like to fight Jon Jones for [the undisputed title]. That would be pretty cool,” Aspinal reiterates. “But if it doesn’t happen, I’m not bothered. Like I say, Jon Jones isn’t my focus. My focus is the undisputed heavyweight title. Anything else, to me, is pretty irrelevant at this point.”
Despite the imposing figure he cuts in a room — at a listed 6-foot-5 and, he says, 260 pounds this week — Aspinall is a genial fellow.
Over the past year of trying to secure a unification bout with Jones — with a break in the middle to make the first successful defense of a UFC interim title in a decade, avenging his only UFC loss with a first-round KO of Curtis Blaydes in July — Aspinall has littered his social media platforms with more cheeky attempts at goading the GOAT than slinging mud and projecting menace.
In the spring, Aspinall hoped to have a photo snapped with Jones in the typical squaring off pose, with the other champ declining to play ball.
Aspinall has created cheeky content, such as comedically seeking out “Jones” at a gym or a swimming pool.
All that’s done, in Jones’ recent assessment to The Post, is to be labeled “annoying” and, while addressing reporters at Wednesday media day, lead to Jones declaring: “Tom’s been such an a–hole that I don’t want to do business with him.”
Nonetheless, Aspinall asserts he wouldn’t change a thing.
“I’m just trying to get a fight for the undisputed title,” reaffirms the lighthearted Aspinall. “As I’ve said, it’s not aimed at Jon but just to have a little bit of fun along the way. That’s just my kind of personality, anyway. But Jon, you know, takes it very personal, but it’s just a bit of fun.”
Aspinall is simply in New York to do whatever business the UFC needs of him, be it simply weighing in and enjoying the show or jumping in with precious little prep time to face either the UFC’s greatest light heavyweight or its greatest heavyweight.
The interim champ, who this week kept a light schedule of media appearances, maintains he isn’t trying to steal the thunder of the UFC 309 headliners.
“This really isn’t my fight week. I’m here to step in if the UFC needs me,” Aspinall explains. “This is not my week, so it’s not really my choice to push my name forward and stuff. Other people are just doing that for me.”
Ultimately, Aspinall is most interested in letting the moment come and go.
Let Jones and Miocic settle the business they intended to last November.
The 31-year-old will be waiting on the other side, relieved to get back to business and, he hopes, vie at last for the undisputed crown.
“Once it’s done, it’s done,” says Aspinall, who hopes to compete again as soon as March or April against whoever the UFC wants to put in front of him, “and I’m just looking forward to this fight being done. Everything will be clear in just a couple of days’ time, and we’ll all move forward.”
“And I don’t know how that looks. Nobody knows how that looks right now. You never, ever, ever know in MMA, especially at heavyweight. So right now, we’re just waiting.”