Tom Aspinall never cared about fighting Jon Jones. He just wanted what was coming to him.
In the end, Aspinall did exactly what he said he would do a year ago — force Jones to retire without ever fighting him. ‘Bones’ walked away from the sport in June, bringing an end to a 17-year run with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
As a result, Aspinall was promoted from interim to undisputed champion. It’s certainly not the way that he wanted to win the belt, but the Brit made it clear that the man standing in front of him was never the issue. He just wanted an opportunity to prove himself as the best heavyweight on the planet.
“I was never actually chasing Jon,” Aspinall said in an interview with the UFC. “I was chasing the heavyweight title all along. The opponent—the guy standing across from me—never mattered. It never has mattered. It never will matter. What was important to me was being the best in the world.”
After wasting the better part of a year waiting for Jon Jones to sign on the dotted line, Aspinall is ready to get back to business and be something the UFC hasn’t seen in a long time — an active heavyweight champion.
Aspinall is yet to book his first official defense as undisputed champion, but all signs currently point toward a long-awaited clash with former interim titleholder Ciryl Gane. Of course, that hasn’t stopped other contenders like Jailton Almeida from throwing his name in the hat.
