UFC CEO Dana White reveals plans to book a Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall fight this summer.
Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has been eager to face Jon Jones since the heavyweight champion’s battle with Stipe Miocic in November. However, Jones has been unresponsive. Aspinall stepped in as the interim champion after Jones took a hiatus due to an injury. While the heavyweight champion was away, Aspinall fought and defeated Sergei Pavlovich to win the interim title.
Soon afterwards, Jones made a grand return and fought Miocic. Initially, he said he would retire after the fight, but his victory reinvigorated him, and the champion decided to remain in the octagon. Since this change of mind, Aspinall has pushed for a fight with the heavyweight champion to unify the titles, but Jones repeatedly turned down the offer, stating he would rather vacate the title and battle Alex Pereira.
Despite the heavyweight champion’s desire to fight Pereira, UFC CEO Dana White revealed that a title unification bout will likely be the next step for “Bones.” Although many are looking forward to this fight, it seemed as though things had come to a halt, which Aspinall largely blames on Jones. However, White changed all that on Wednesday when he announced that Jones would return in the summer to face Tom Aspinall.
“Jones will fight anybody, too,” Dana White stated to Stephen A. Smith earlier today, discussing the UFC heavyweight champion’s potential return against Tom Aspinall. “Don’t let the internet fool you about Jon Jones, yeah. He does want to do it. [I think he could return as soon as] this summer.”
“The plan is to fight Jon this summer,” White told *The Jim Rome Show*. “Obviously, when, where, and all that stuff is still being determined. My goal this year is to make that fight [with] Aspinall.”
As for the fight with Pereira, White says that will depend on Pereira’s performance against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313. Pereira has already teased moving to the heavyweight division, and a battle with Jones—who is arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter—would be an epic one. However, White says he’s holding Pereira back for now, as the fighter has already conquered both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions.
“The other thing about Pereira that everybody loves is, this guy wants to go up to heavyweight and fight at heavyweight, too,” White said. “I’m the one who’s actually holding him back on that.”
“He wants to [fight Jon Jones],” White said about Pereira. “Let’s see how this fight plays out, if he wins, how he wins, all that kind of stuff.”
“I think the fight that everybody wants to see right now is Jones and Aspinall. Then, there’s no doubt that Pereira could fight the winner.”
