In response to our deal ol’ Uncle Chael, Tom Aspinall will defend his interim UFC heavyweight championship for the second time this summer time.
It’s been practically 18 months since Aspinall received the non permanent title through a vicious 69-second KO over Sergei Pavlovic. Sadly, we’re no nearer to seeing the Brit unify his belt with Jon Jones‘ undisputed heavyweight crown right this moment than we had been that night time again in November 2023.
Issues gave the impression to be lastly trending in the fitting route with Sonnen claiming that Jones vs. Aspinall was a achieved deal behind the scenes, all the way in which right down to the date.
Now, ‘The American Gangster’ is pulling a whole U-turn, stating {that a} scrap between Aspinall and former interim titleholder Ciryl Gane is now the plan with Worldwide Combat Week being earmarked for the time and place.
“The present plan proper now, Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane for the interim championship,” Sonnen mentioned on YouTube. “Now, I’ll again the strikes. I’ll again the strikes with full integrity in place as a result of our overarching theme, our structure itself inside the sport of MMA is we fiercely adhere to the foundations that we make up as we go. So, I’m on board and I like something that ends in world championship.
“Not solely are we going to have each [an interim and undisputed champion], we’re going to contend for a second time the interim championship. However we’re going to do it for the primary time within the presence of our undisputed champion and we could or might not be doing that in 9 weeks at Worldwide Combat Weekend” (h/t MMAmania).
Sonnen reveals why the UFC’s greatest heavyweight struggle of all time fell by but once more
Why such a sudden course correction? As Sonnen explains, Jon Jones was granted the six months of prep time he’d reportedly requested to arrange for a struggle with the Brit.
“I’m right here to let you know, based on a remarkably good supply, Jon Jones goes to be afforded the flexibility to attend 180 days, which is equal to 6 months, which is what he requested for,” Sonnen continued. “Tom Aspinall goes to struggle with Ciryl Gane, which was, in reality, on the desk many months in the past after which Ciryl was gifted a call in a struggle that he misplaced in opposition to [Alexander] Volkov. That’s the way in which the story occurred.
“And now we’re going to defend an interim champion with the existence of an undisputed champion, which is in opposition to the legal guidelines of logic and the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of champion in addition to undisputed in addition to interim, however we’re going to adhere to the one factor that we do persistently: We’re going to carefully comply with the foundations that we make up as we go.”
Jones has solely fought twice since 2020, the primary time being his title-winning efficiency in opposition to Ciryl Gane at UFC 285. He adopted that up with a third-round TKO over Stipe Miocic to defend the heavyweight crown 20 months later.
If Sonnen is to be believed, it appears like we received’t see ‘Bones’ again contained in the Octagon till November 2025, on the earliest.
Evidently, struggle followers are going to be livid if this proves to be true.
