UFC interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has no intention of defending his belt pending a bout for the current title between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic.
The Briton said this on the True Geordie podcast, commenting on the statement of the head of the world’s strongest league, Dana White, who offered him to make a defense of the interim champion belt.
“I really enjoy MMA, especially the UFC,” the heavyweight stated. “I’m so proud to fight in the best organization in the world. To me, that means the best fights the best here. And I’m a big boxing fan, I love the sport, but I can’t stand the boxing model. There shouldn’t be five, six different world champions at one weight. Let’s find out who the right guy is. That’s what I want to find out. Right now, there are two champions in the UFC heavyweight division. That’s not right.”
“You can make it look good all you want, call it a legacy fight and stuff like that. But my next fight will be for the current title. Why don’t they do that? Let’s find out who the guy is. And this whole legacy fight thing is bullshit, I don’t see how it works. Let them have a legacy fight, but why for the current title? Why make everyone else wait? I get it, it’s Jon Jones. There is no one on this planet who is a bigger Jon Jones fan than me, but this isn’t boxing. This is not where guys avoid each other. No. 1 doesn’t fight No. 10. Let’s find out who’s the strongest, because I believe it’s me.”
“Defending the interim title is very strange. I don’t want to sit here and berate my bosses, but it’s not right. There can’t be two heavyweight champions. That’s not boxing. There has to be one guy, one face, one name, and let’s find out who that is!”
Jon Jones was scheduled to make his title defense against Stipe Miocic on Nov. 11 at UFC 295 in New York City, but the reigning champion pulled out of the fight two weeks before the tournament after tearing a pectoral muscle, while Tom Aspinall won the interim championship belt in a numbered event by knocking out Russian Sergey Pavlovic in 69 seconds.
According to the UFC’s plan, Jon Jones, who will be out for about a year, will make a title defense against Stipe Miocic after he recovers before the winner of that fight meets Tom Aspinall.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/33442-tom-aspinall-otvetil-otkazom-na-predlozhenie-ufc.html?rand=19907
