Last Monday, Tom Aspinall went on the MMA Hour and had a very up beat interview with Ariel Helwani. Talking about everything from his up coming return to the recent crowning of Jon Jones as the heavyweight champion.
Just a few weeks ago, Jon Jones made his long-awaited return to MMA but for the vacant heavyweight title after submitting Ciryl Gane in the first round. Since then, many fights have given their opinion on Jones’ crowning, but here is what Aspinall had to say.
Now with Jon Jones, it’s difficult to make an argument against him [being the GOAT]. The guy is special. He is special, and for him to be the champ of my division right now, like that gives me an unbelievable amount of motivation. Let’s be honest, I probably won’t fight him. But to just have the aim for, that’s something special for a guy like me.
The last time Aspinall fought was in July 2022 as the main event at a UFC London event. He was scheduled to fight Curtis Blaydes, but in the opening seconds of the fight, Aspinall threw a body kick resulting in him blowing his knee out. His knee had blown out and was the result of an injury left unattended for years. Now Aspinall is at the end of his recovery and is potentially more dangerous than ever. Hungry to prove himself. On top of now fighting with two functional knees.
Tom Aspinall Says That Jon Jones Is a Dream Matchup for Him
Now adding the heavyweight title to his long-time reign as the light heavyweight champion. Jones now seeks further challenges in the likes of former champion Stipe Miocic, hopefully meeting in the octagon in July for international fight week. Aspinall goes on in his interview to say in his interview.
I think he’ll probably face Stipe and leave it there, but I don’t know. I don’t know if he’ll start fighting up and comers like me… Maybe I’m wrong, that’s my dream fight honestly, to fight Jon Jones. That’s a serious motivation for me since he became champ. I know it was only like a week or two ago, but the GOAT is the champ of my division.
Quotes via The MMA Hour
Aspinall later goes on to say that he’s fit and healthy enough to accept a fight offer any day now. He’ll be meeting with the UFC this week. The UFC returns to the UK this week for UFC 286. The last two times the UFC came to the UK, Aspinall headlined both events. Now he was to prove himself against a top contender, preferably above him but is happy to fight down the rankings as well.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
