“As a trainer, I see a lot of greatness in Tom Aspinall,” the American said in an interview with From The Stands. “Very good footwork, great defense, solid base, and he brings a lot of qualities to the heavyweight division that represent the next generation. Speed, athleticism, versatile game.”
“Tom is a great young fighter, and of course like any young fighter he wants to make a statement, especially against legends, and as you know John wrote him that he hasn’t faced the legends in this game yet. He doesn’t have that on his resume, that’s not part of his accomplishments.”
“The time to fight Tom will come, I’m sure, but we have to achieve the goal we set out to achieve and that’s John’s fight against Stipe. And whatever Tom thinks about it, whether it’s fair or not, Anthony Smith has made a very valid point about it – Jon Jones can do whatever he wants to do.”
“I’m of the same opinion, and I was reading an article recently about UFC champions who have been stripped of their belts, and I want to say that there haven’t been many people who have lost a title because of inactivity. We have an injury, a timeline for a comeback, and the UFC is not going to strip Jon Jones of his heavyweight title.”
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 bout 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.