UFC CEO, Dana White, commented on the statement of UFC interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, who suggested that the league should organize a fight for him against Stipe Miocic, and that the injured Jon Jones should be relieved of the current title.
According to White, they will stick to the former scenario and leave the championship belt to Jones, who will make a stoppage defense against Stipe Miocic after he recovers.
“The Jones vs. Stipe fight is going to happen – both guys deserve it,” the head of the world’s strongest league said at a press conference in Austin. “It’s a fight of the greatest fighter of all time against the greatest heavyweight of all time. These two want to fight each other, that’s the way it’s going to be. We’ll see what the winner decides to do and we’ll build off of that.”
Thus, Tom Aspinall will likely have to defend the interim title, as has happened three times in UFC history. In 2005, Andrei Orlovsky successfully defended the interim UFC heavyweight title against Justin Eilers, and in 2013, Henan Barao defended the interim UFC lightweight title against Michael McDonald and Eddie Wineland. Both were subsequently declared the reigning champions.
As a reminder, Tom Aspinall won the interim UFC heavyweight championship belt by knocking out Sergey Pavlovic in 69 seconds at UFC 295 in New York City on Nov. 11.
Earlier, the head of the UFC announced that Jon Jones, who tore a pectoral muscle, will be out of the octagon for about a year.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/33306-glava-ufc-otvetil-na-vopros-o-lishenii-dzhona-dzhonsa-chempionskogo-poyasa.html?rand=19907
