Will Jon Jones fight Tom Aspinall or not fight at all? And what about Aspinall’s interim title? Does it still hold weight despite Jones’ ‘undisputed title’? All these questions must be hovering in your mind after Jones won against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309. Thankfully, UFC legend and top MMA analyst Chael Sonnen has some updates and insights on the same matter.

Traditionally, interim belts were made because undisputed champions being out of commission, mostly due to injuries. When the champ returns, he/she must unify the interim and undisputed titles. That didn’t happen with Jon Jones and Tom Aspinal. Furthermore, there were many rumors that Aspinall would be stripped of his title as soon as the opening bell rang for Jones vs Miocic but that didn’t happen either. Sonnen answered why.

Chael Sonnen clarifies why Tom Aspinall was not stripped of his title

Miocic was supposed to fight Jones at UFC 295 but Jones had a pectoral injury so he had to withdraw from the November 2023 bout. In the meantime, Tom Aspinall had an epic knockout win over Sergei Pavlovich to become the interim heavyweight champion. ‘Honey Badger’ took it one step further and defended his interim title (as bizarre as it sounds) in a rematch against Curtis Blaydes and hit three birds with one stone; finished Blaydes in the first round, and defended his title. Then ‘Bones’ came back and won his heavyweight fight at UFC 309. So, what about the interim title now?

“You can’t have an interim when you have an undisputed [title].”, Chael Sonnen said on his YouTube channel, before continuing, “So, let’s go ahead and unify them, right?” However, Sonnen stated that the problem with making that fight lies with the negotiation involved in that matchup. Sonnen further said that the interim title shouldn’t have even been a thing once Jones came back to defend his undisputed title at UFC 309. However, ‘The American Gangster’ speculated that having Aspinall keep his interim title was a way of either having Jones’ next opponent ready or to leverage power away from the heavyweight champion.

“Do you keep the belt on Tom as a way of saying, ‘All right, we’ve got our match. We cannot go to #3 or #4, which we do all the time. We can’t move down, we have to go to our interim champion. Let’s get you guys together and off we go!’? Is that what it is? Or does it take a little bit of power away from Jon?”, said Sonnen, before continuing with, “In all fairness, when you have an undisputed champion, Jon can’t go to somebody else, ‘Hey, there’s other great fights and this looks really good’, he just can’t. We can’t skip that guy [Aspinall].”

Basically, Chael Sonnen concluded that the UFC has given only two options to Jon Jones – fight Tom, or don’t fight at all. For Jon Jones, heavy is the head that wears the crown. And his woes are far from over with his biggest current rival taking potshots, and even suggesting he be stripped of his undisputed title.

Aspinall laid his thoughts on Jones holding the undisputed title

Tom Aspinall’s bid for the heavyweight throne began way before his interim title but truly began to push for Jones to be stripped when he won the title by beating Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 –  the very card where Jones’ was supposed to make his first title defense. However, a torn pectoral injury forced him out of the bout, leading Aspinall to say the following to Michael Bisping on the latter’s YouTube channel, “I think Jon Jones should be stripped from the title to be honest because everyone else does when they get injured like that.” 

‘Honey Badger’ alluded to other champions like Jiri Prochazka who relinquished his title due to a horrific injury, so as not to keep the light heavyweight division in limbo. Aspinall even offered himself to take on Stipe Miocic as a replacement for Jones at UFC 295.

However, things still went according to  Dana White who wanted to see Jones compete as the heavyweight champion. However, now all the UFC CEO wants is to set up the Aspinall vs Jones fight, which he believes could be the biggest fight that the UFC has ever made. However, Jones wants, “f**k your money” to fight Aspinall. What do you think will happen? Let us know in the comments down below.