Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) Heavyweight division has everyone and their grandmother losing their minds.
UFC 304 was another successful night at the office for the promotion’s lone interim titleholder, Tom Aspinall, who defended his title with a 60-second technical knockout of Curtis Blaydes in the co-main event (watch highlights). The victory gave Aspinall more title defenses at Heavyweight than the undisputed champion, Jon Jones, who hasn’t fought since he won the belt in a vacant title bout against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in March 2023 (watch highlights).
Jones, 37, was supposed to return to defend against former two-time champion, Stipe Miocic, at UFC 295 in November 2023. That was until a torn pectoral muscle pulled him from the bout and led to Aspinall’s coronation against Sergei Pavlovich that night (watch highlights). Despite Aspinall’s incredible success in his entire nine-fight UFC career (8-1, 15-3 overall) since July 2020, he still hasn’t done enough for UFC CEO, Dana White, to label him deserving of a title unification bout over Miocic’s title shot. At the same time, he is owed one because of his title. It is what it is, right?
Kevin Iole. “But at the same time, he’s working his way up. He’s climbing up the ladder. Everyone says, ‘He deserves this and he deserves that.’ The dude doesn’t deserve anything. He looks great and he looks like he’s going to be the guy.
“You have Stipe and Jon — who have paid their dues, they’ve been here forever, they’ve fought everybody and they’ve fought everybody, they’ve fought all the fights you can possibly fight — these guys deserve to fight each other,” he concluded. “Whoever wins that fight, I think they owe it to Aspinall to fight him and give him the opportunity that they’ve been given.”
To make matters all the more illogical, Miocic will “100 percent” retire after his expected next fight against Jones, according to White. Miocic, 41, last fought when he got knocked out in round two of his Francis Ngannou rematch in March 2021.
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