Aspinall May Face Gane Over Jones As Fans Fume

There are now major doubts about whether Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall will happen after Chael Sonnen went back on his recent comments.

Fans have been waiting for Jones vs. Aspinall following the results of their respective fights. Jones made the first successful defense of his heavyweight title after sending Stipe Miocic into retirement with a victory at UFC 309. That was followed after Aspinall had stopped Curtis Blaydes in their UFC 304 rematch to secure the title shot. Dana White has consistently said that he is confident a fight will be made, with many feeling that it is the next bout.

Jones Vs. Aspinall

Aspinall has secured the title shot, meaning Jones must decide whether he wants to vacate, defend his belt, or retire from the sport. He cannot fight Alex Pereira after he lost his fight against Magomed Ankalaev. They are also expected to run things back, as Jones has nowhere else to go. Sonnen had recently revealed that a verbal agreement had been made between Jones and Aspinall. But he has since then changed his view on the matter. 

He has suggested that Aspinall will defend his interim title against Ciryl Gane next. Gane knows this would be a massive opportunity, given he lost to Jones in a heavyweight title fight. He also has been accused of ducking Aspinall when the Brit said he had turned down the opportunity to make the fight before. 

Will It Happen?

This is not an ideal scenario for Tom since there is no guarantee that he would win such a fight. A loss would also reduce the demand to see Jones vs. Aspinall. MMA fans already missed out on seeing Francis Ngannou face Jones, so there is a possibility they may not get Jones vs. Aspinall. 

“I’m here to tell you, according to a remarkably good source, Jon Jones is going to be afforded the ability to wait 180 days, which is equivalent to six months, which is what he asked for,” Sonnen continued. “Tom Aspinall is going to fight with Ciryl Gane, which was, in fact, on the table many months ago and then Ciryl was gifted a decision in a fight that he lost against [Alexander] Volkov.

“That’s the way the story happened. And now we’re going to defend an interim champion with the existence of an undisputed champion, which is against the laws of logic and the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of champion as well as undisputed as well as interim, but we are going to adhere to the one thing that we do consistently: We are going to closely follow the rules that we make up as we go,” Chael Sonnen said