“Give me my dream fight,” After historic UFC 295 win, Tom Aspinall reacts to Jon Jones’ congratulations tweet

Examining Tom Aspinall's rapid rise to become the first British MMA heavyweight champion with his win over Sergei Pavlovich and the potential dream fight with Jon Jones.

“Give me my dream fight,” After historic UFC 295 win, Tom Aspinall reacts to Jon Jones’ congratulations tweet

Jon Jones congratulates Tom Aspinall (Image via: X/Giga Do Bronx)

Tom Aspinall created history at Madison Square Garden to become the first British heavyweight champion in MMA history. His first-round TKO victory over Sergei Pavlovich came in just 69 seconds, and it kept his shortest-average fight time record intact.

With the victory, Aspinall won the interim heavyweight title, and it quickly got the attention of Jon Jones, the undisputed heavyweight champion. Jones took to X (formerly Twitter) to congratulate Aspinall, who was at the post-fight press conference at the time. This is what he said to Jon Jones in response to Jones’ congratulatory tweet.

I've seen John talking nice stuff about me on a podcast as well. It's really nice, obviously. It's always nice to hear nice things about you, but from someone like that who I massively look up to even more so. Yeah, thank you, John, and just give me the opportunity, John. Let me do it. Give me my dream fight. Why not? I've just achieved my dream. Now give me my dream fight. Let me fight for my legacy now, please.
Tom Aspinall via UFC 295 post-fight press conference.
YouTube video

Aspinall showed respect to Jones and acknowledged the stature of Jones in MMA. Moreover, Aspinall requested a matchup between him and the undisputed champion. However, rumors are that Jones and Stipe Miocic would retire after their presumed title fight. Nevertheless, a matchup between Jones and Aspinall is enticing for the UFC.

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Aspinall was on vacation in Wales when he was called on short notice to fight at UFC 295. Nevertheless, Aspinall proved the betting odds right as he dispatched Pavlovich, who was on a six-fight first-round finishing streak. Interestingly, Ciryl Gane called Aspinall out after the victory. However, Gane was reluctant to fight Aspinall after UFC Paris when Gane defeated Sergey Spivak.

Jon Jones congratulates Tom Aspinall on an awesome performance at UFC 295

The MMA community was stunned by Tom Aspinall’s performance at UFC 295. The performance also drew praise from none other than Jon Jones, the heavyweight champion of the UFC. Jones is presently nursing a pectoral injury. He has completed surgery and would require a minimum of 8 months to recover fully.

Jon Jones congratulated Tom Aspinall
Jon Jones congratulated Tom Aspinall (Image via: X/Bread)

Jones tweeted this after Aspinall won the interim heavyweight title at MSG:

Tom congratulations on the interim heavyweight championship belt! That was an awesome performance!
Jon Jones via X.

This is not the first time that Jones praised Aspinall. Interestingly, Aspinall also sees Jones as a formidable fighter. Moreover, with the short-notice victory, Aspinall followed the footsteps of Birtain’s first UFC champion, Michael Bisping. Like Aspinall, Bisping fought on 17 days short notice to win the middleweight championship over Luke Rockhold in what was a big upset at UFC 199.

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