UFC CEO Dana White is adamant that a heavyweight title unification bout between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall will take place in 2025.
White spoke on the pending status of the arguably biggest fight in the company’s heavyweight history at the UFC Tampa post-fight press conference Saturday.
There, White offered a 100 percent guarantee that the highly anticipated clash will happen.
“Yeah, I’ll say 100 percent [guaranteed],” White said when asked about Jones vs. Aspinall. “100 percent [it’s a priority]. I think it’s probably the biggest fight in heavyweight history, and it’s massive in the history of the company, too. It’s a big fight.”
White continued: “Jon Jones isn’t afraid to fight anybody, and that’s a fact. The only time anything weird ever happened was when his camp made the goofy decision to not fight Chael Sonnen [at UFC 151]. But Jon? He’s not the type to turn down fights.”
Aspinall, the interim UFC heavyweight champion, has surged through the division with dominance since 2020.
In 2024, he delivered a statement performance with a 60-second knockout of Curtis Blaydes to avenge his only UFC loss.
Before Jones stopped Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 in November, White anticipated that Aspinall would do battle with the victor — which was widely expected to be Jones.
Jones has hinted at wanting to fight UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira in the past, but White insisted that Aspinall will be next.
The champ has been adamant about not wanting to fight Aspinall and has said it would take a huge payday to make him consider it.
“He’s annoying to me and that’s my own personal — he annoys me,” Jones said of Aspinall, who has taunted Jones for not squaring off with him, after UFC 309 “I get to you guys, you find it entertaining, but I find him annoying and I just don’t like him and at the end of the day, if I give him the opportunity to fight me, I want to be so compensated — I want to say it, I want that ‘f–k you’ money, honestly. That’s just what it is.”
“It’s weird,” White said of Jones. “Let me tell you what’s weird about that. So usually, those guys say that s–t behind the scenes and not publicly. Jon says that s–t publicly but not behind the scenes. Jon is a very unique individual to deal with.”
Aspinall’s father and coach, Andy Aspinall, believes his son is a unique challenge for Jones.
“Tom will be different from anyone Jon has fought before,” he said. “A lot of people still don’t know what Tom excels at, and that unpredictability could be what works against Jones.”
The stage appears set for one of the most monumental showdowns in UFC heavyweight history.
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