Tom Aspinall, the Manchester heavyweight who spent practically two years in MMA’s most irritating limbo, has lastly been promoted to undisputed UFC champion, not by beating the person in the way in which, however by watching Jon Jones stroll away.
The British fighter’s anticipate the belt ended not with a knockout, however with a cellphone name: Jon Jones, essentially the most adorned and controversial determine in UFC historical past, retired as a substitute of defending towards Aspinall, leaving the division free to maneuver on.
Undisputed Heavyweight Champion – Tom Aspinall
Tom Aspinall, who had held the interim belt for 19 months, has been vocal about his ambitions. “What I actually needed was the undisputed title. That was what I used to be chasing the entire time. I used to be by no means actually chasing one man. Jon Jones was only a bonus due to the resume that he has received and the standing he holds inside the sport,” Tom Aspinall mentioned, talking in an interview with Diary of a CEO.
For months, Aspinall known as for a unification bout, at the same time as Jones, recent off a comeback win over a 42-year-old Stipe Miocic, dodged the dialog and the contract. The saga between Aspinall and Jones started in earnest when Jones, the newly topped heavyweight king, suffered a pectoral damage in late 2023, forcing him out of a scheduled title protection.
Tom Aspinall stepped in at UFC 295, seized the interim belt, after which defended it with ruthless effectivity. However when Jones returned, he selected to face Miocic, a legend, however one who had not fought in years, reasonably than the interim champion. The UFC, the followers, and Aspinall himself all needed to see the 2 greatest heavyweights settle the controversy within the cage. Jones, for causes by no means totally defined, refused.
Hypothesis swirled about Jones’s motives. Was he ducking Aspinall? Was he defending his legacy? Or was he merely executed with the game? Jones’s camp, and a few of his friends, insisted he by no means prevented anybody, he had, in spite of everything, fought the perfect on the earth for over a decade. However the optics had been onerous to disregard: a champion who wouldn’t struggle his necessary challenger, a division held hostage by indecision.
Then, simply because the UFC was gearing up for its annual Worldwide Battle Week, Jones introduced his retirement, hours after information broke that he was going through a brand new misdemeanor cost for allegedly leaving the scene of a automotive crash in Albuquerque earlier this 12 months. The timing was suspicious, to say the least. The incident reportedly concerned a extremely intoxicated lady, a wrecked automotive, and a dialog with police wherein a person believed to be Jones refused to establish himself and made what had been described as “regarding feedback.”
Given Jones’s historical past, a hit-and-run involving a pregnant lady, home violence, DUI arrests, and a number of failed drug exams, the newest authorized wrinkle matches neatly right into a sample of off-cage chaos. Whether or not this new cost had something to do together with his retirement is unclear, but it surely definitely didn’t assist his already sophisticated legacy.
In the meantime, Tom Aspinall is now the person to beat within the heavyweight division. He’s promised to be an lively champion, and the UFC has vowed to make up for the money and time he misplaced ready for Jones to make up his thoughts.
