“Let’s move forward,” Tom Aspinall urges Dana White and matchmakers to scrap Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic and let him fight legends

Tom Aspinall was not willing to wait around and stall his career, and wants to fight either Jon Jones or Stipe Miocic.

“Let’s move forward,” Tom Aspinall urges Dana White and matchmakers to scrap Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic and let him fight legends

Tom Aspinall wants to venture into boxing, in absence of Jon Jones (Source: Twitter/IMAGO)

Tom Aspinall astonished everyone with his win over Sergei Pavlovich in UFC 295. He finished the Russian in just 69 seconds of the fight to grab the interim heavyweight title. However, this fight was scheduled under unfortunate circumstances. Originally, Jon Jones was to defend his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic. But he pulled out citing an injury. Now, Aspinall shared his thoughts on Jones vs. Miocic and his future.

The British champion stated that Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic was an amazing matchup. However, he said that the shine of that fight was going to diminish as time went by. As such, he didn’t want to stall his career progression and wait around. So, he wanted to fight either one of those legends. Further, he was positive about getting a fight with either Stipe or Jones. Here is what he said on the MMA Hour show:

Let me move forward with my career as opposed to doing this other stuff, wait around and... That's an amazing matchup (Jones vs. Miocic) but I don't want to see that, I don't think anyone else wants to see that in a year's time. Let's move on from that now. Let me fight one of the legends.
Tom Aspinall (via MMA Hour)
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Tom Aspinall further expressed his wish to fight them in the UK. He was confident that he could sell out an arena in the UK. As such, he became the only third British UFC champion just after Michael Bisping and Leon Edwards. He was always a prospect to look for in the heavyweight division.

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As said earlier, Tom Aspinall was looking to match up with either Jon Jones or Stipe Miocic. But UFC CEO Dana White earlier stated that Jones would fight Miocic on his return. Meanwhile, Ciryl Gane had called him out. So, the question about who would Aspinall face next remains.

Tom Aspinall responds to the callout from Ciryl Gane after his win at UFC 295

Ciryl Gane is the number one heavyweight contender. He congratulated Tom Aspinall on winning the interim heavyweight championship. Further, he called him out for a fight. This fight made sense as he’s ranked number one and Aspinall was just above him.

The two have some history. As such, Aspinall shared his thoughts on Gane’s callout in his post-fight press conference at UFC 295.

Ciryl Gane - Tom Aspinall
Ciryl Gane – Tom Aspinall(Image via Imago)

The UFC offered Ciryl Gane a fight against Tom Aspinall multiple times before. But he declined the fight citing that it didn’t make sense for him to fight down the rankings. Now, Tom Aspinall chuckled at Gane’s callout due to these past altercations. So, he declined to fight the Frenchman and stated that Gane had to fight Jailton Almeida next. Here is what he said:

That's interesting. After I called him out, went to France and he turned the fight down. I think he should fight Almeida. I think them guys should fight each other first and see what happens there.
Tom Aspinall (via UFC Press Conference)

Recently, Jailton Almeida called out Ciryl Gane after his win over Derrick Lewis in UFC Sao Paulo. Since then he’s been vocal about wanting the fight. Now that Tom Aspinall wanted that to happen, the probability of getting Gane vs. Almeida has increased. But, we’ll have to wait for the UFC’s announcement. Previously, Gane won his previous fight against Sergey Spivack, and Almeida is on a seven-fight win streak.

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