Tom Aspinall, the Manchester heavyweight who spent nearly two years in MMA’s most frustrating limbo, has finally been promoted to undisputed UFC champion, not by beating the man in the way, but by watching Jon Jones walk away.
The British fighter’s wait for the belt ended not with a knockout, but with a phone call: Jon Jones, the most decorated and controversial figure in UFC history, retired instead of defending against Aspinall, leaving the division free to move on.
Undisputed Heavyweight Champion – Tom Aspinall
Tom Aspinall, who had held the interim belt for 19 months, has been vocal about his ambitions. “What I really wanted was the undisputed title. That was what I was chasing the whole time. I was never really chasing one guy. Jon Jones was just a bonus because of the resume that he has got and the status he holds within the sport,” Tom Aspinall said, speaking in an interview with Diary of a CEO.
For months, Aspinall called for a unification bout, even as Jones, fresh off a comeback win over a 42-year-old Stipe Miocic, dodged the conversation and the contract. The saga between Aspinall and Jones began in earnest when Jones, the newly crowned heavyweight king, suffered a pectoral injury in late 2023, forcing him out of a scheduled title defense.
Tom Aspinall stepped in at UFC 295, seized the interim belt, and then defended it with ruthless efficiency. But when Jones returned, he chose to face Miocic, a legend, but one who had not fought in years, rather than the interim champion. The UFC, the fans, and Aspinall himself all wanted to see the two best heavyweights settle the debate in the cage. Jones, for reasons never fully explained, refused.
Speculation swirled about Jones’s motives. Was he ducking Aspinall? Was he protecting his legacy? Or was he simply done with the sport? Jones’s camp, and some of his peers, insisted he never avoided anyone, he had, after all, fought the best in the world for over a decade. But the optics were hard to ignore: a champion who wouldn’t fight his mandatory challenger, a division held hostage by indecision.
Then, just as the UFC was gearing up for its annual International Fight Week, Jones announced his retirement, hours after news broke that he was facing a new misdemeanor charge for allegedly leaving the scene of a car crash in Albuquerque earlier this year. The timing was suspicious, to say the least. The incident reportedly involved a highly intoxicated woman, a wrecked car, and a conversation with police in which a man believed to be Jones refused to identify himself and made what were described as “concerning comments.”
Given Jones’s history, a hit-and-run involving a pregnant woman, domestic violence, DUI arrests, and multiple failed drug tests, the latest legal wrinkle fits neatly into a pattern of off-cage chaos. Whether this new charge had anything to do with his retirement is unclear, but it certainly didn’t help his already complicated legacy.
Meanwhile, Tom Aspinall is now the man to beat in the heavyweight division. He’s promised to be an active champion, and the UFC has vowed to make up for the time and money he lost waiting for Jones to make up his mind.
