Tom Aspinall is officially the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, after he was elevated from interim-title holder upon Jon Jones’s retirement on Saturday.
Jones won the vacant heavyweight belt in March 2023, submitting Ciryl Gane in round one, but his first title defence was derailed six months later, as an injury ruled him out of a fight with Stipe Miocic. With Jones vs Miocic delayed by a year, Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich stepped up in November 2023, fighting for the interim belt. Aspinall knocked out the Russian in round one, becoming Britain’s third UFC champion in the process.
But Aspinall, 32, was forced to wait for a potential unification clash with Jones, 37, who returned last November to stop Miocic and retain the regular belt. That fight only played out after Aspinall, in a very rare move, defended the interim strap last July, when he knocked out Curtis Blaydes in 60 seconds.
In a frustrating saga, Jones refused to commit to a bout with Aspinall but also refused to retire from MMA – until Saturday, when he finally called time on a controversial career.
With that, Aspinall was made the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, so focus now turns to his first regular-title defence. But whom could the Wigan fighter face, and when?
Firstly, let’s look at his potential opponents. Gane is the frontrunner, despite most fans and pundits deeming him undeserving of his decision win over Alexander Volkov in December. The Frenchman won on two of the three scorecards – having previously beaten the Russian via unanimous decision in 2021 – but many felt that Volkov was “robbed”.
Still, Gane, a former interim champion like Aspinall, is one of just two top-five heavyweights whom the Briton has not faced. Aspinall already holds a submission win over Volkov (#2) and knockouts of Pavlovich (#3) and Blaydes (#4), meaning Gane (#1) and Jailton Almeida (#5) are the only fresh challenges for him.
Gane seems the likelier opponent for Aspinall, but in any case, the champion talked The Independent through the skillsets of both Gane and Almeida this month.
“Gane’s a great mover, controls the range very well,” Aspinall said. “He’s a great kicker for a big guy. He’s a former interim champion himself, he’s fought everybody apart for me at the top level basically. He’s very good.
“Almeida is a good grappler, striking we haven’t seen too much of yet, but people say the same about my grappling. People say, ‘Well, he’s not that good of a grappler,’ but I just haven’t had the chance to show it. Maybe he’s the same with his striking. Most of his fights are predominantly grappling-heavy, but it doesn’t mean he can’t strike; he’s just not had the opportunity to show it yet.”
Aspinall also complimented Volkov, despite the ease with which he dispatched the Russian in 2022, saying: “Volkov is the tallest guy in the UFC, 6f 9in. He’s got like 45-50 pro fights, bags of experience, and he’s just a good, solid all-rounder. He’s good everywhere, really awkward, massive. He’s seen everything except a UFC title. I think all that combined just makes him really dangerous.”
An outsider for Aspinall could be Alex Pereira, a former middleweight and light-heavyweight champion in the UFC. The Brazilian, 37, held the middleweight belt from November 2022 until April 2023, before moving up to 205lb and holding that strap from November 2023 until this March.
Aspinall and Pereira were linked during Jones’s injury-induced absence from the UFC, and the Brazilian was pictured weighing himself this month, with the scales showing 243lb.
And what of the date of Aspinall’s return? The UFC has already booked its pay-per-view (PPV) main events for July and August, and there is no September PPV this year; rather, there are two in October – one in Las Vegas on 4 October, and one in Abu Dhabi on a date that is yet to be announced.
It is likely that a Muslim fighter will headline the Abu Dhabi event, as has been typical in the UFC in recent years, meaning the early-October PPV could mark Aspinall’s return to the cage.
Failing that, the UFC puts much stock in its annual November PPV at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. It was there that Aspinall won his interim belt, and it could be there that he defends the undisputed title for the first time.
