Nineteen months have passed since Tom Aspinall earned a shot at UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones by winning the interim title. Jones has consistently brushed off Aspinall, while UFC CEO Dana White insisted the fight would happen. White took his foot off the gas Tuesday and expressed a willingness to move on without Jones vs. Aspinall if an agreement isn’t reached soon, setting a loose deadline to book the long-overdue fight between heavyweight champions.
“We’ll see how this thing plays out over the next couple of weeks,” White told Jim Rome. “If we can’t get this fight done, we’ll move on quickly. I said a couple of weeks. We’ll have answers in the next couple of weeks.”
Jones has repeatedly denounced Aspinall as a worthy challenger, instead proposing fights with more notable opponents including light heavyweight Alex Pereira and Francis Ngannou, the latter of whom isn’t under UFC contract. A fan petition demanding that Jones be stripped has received nearly 200,000 signatures.
Even Jones’ peers have called for him to retire or vacate the belt. Several current and former UFC champions share the sentiment, including UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.
“If you’re the champ, you defend your belt. It’s a responsibility,” Volkanovski said on the Overdogs Podcast. “You can’t just sit out. You need to be reasonably active. You need to fight whoever’s there. If you’ve got an interim champ, it’s a no-brainer … If you don’t want to fight, just retire, you’re done. Or if you want big fights, you’re going to have to vacate the title.”
Jones denies fearing Aspinall but admits he’d need to be paid handsomely to risk his legacy against the interim champ. Jones, who is often regarded as the greatest mixed martial artist, is undefeated in 30 fights, except for a controversial disqualification loss. White concedes that Jones is difficult to work with but rejects the notion that he’s fearful.
“Jon Jones has been an interesting human being to deal with since the day he got here,” White said. “But I will say this about him, you would never hear me out talking about he’s the GOAT and he’s this and he’s that if Jon Jones didn’t want to fight people. Jon Jones has never ever said, ‘I’m afraid to fight this guy’ or ‘I don’t like this fight for me'”
