There is perhaps no fight more anticipated by hardcore MMA fans than Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall. ‘Bones’, of course, is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the UFC, while Aspinall became the interim heavyweight champion with his UFC 295 victory over Sergei Pavlovich last year, as Jones is out because of an injury. And since it is unheard of for a returning undisputed champion to not fight the interim champion, the UFC world has been clamoring for Jones to fight Aspinall next.

The American, however, has no plans to do so yet, as he is gearing up to face Dana White‘s pick for the heavyweight GOAT, Stipe Miocic. And verbose UFC analyst and former superstar Chael Sonnen thinks this means Aspinall will lose his interim championship as soon as the GOAT contender is back.

Sonnen thinks Jon Jones’ return will mean Aspinall is stripped of interim title

According to Chael Sonnen, as the heavyweight title stands right now, most expect Tom Aspinall to keep his interim belt while Jon Jones fights Miocic in what is being dubbed ‘The Battle of the GOATs’ next. Many expect ‘Bones’ to emerge victorious against the former champion and retire after the legacy-defining bout. After which, Aspinall will be promoted to the undisputed champion. And if Jones doesn’t retire, he will fight the interim champion after Stipe. However, according to ‘Uncle Chael’, this is not the case.

“Jon Jones and Stipe go fight. Jon Jones takes the microphone says ‘I’m retired.’ Boom! Aspinall now elevates [to undisputed champion]. Jon Jones says ‘I’m not going to retire,’ and you got Interim Champion versus Undisputed Champion, [right]? Wrong. You’ve got to look into the bylaws of government affairs,” he said while speaking on ‘MightyCast’.

Sonnen claimed that the bylaws dictate that the interim champion gets stripped as soon as the undisputed champion returns to action. Because of these purported rules, as soon as the undisputed heavyweight champion, i.e. Jon Jones gets in the octagon for his next fight (which is going to be around Stipe Miocic in the latter half of this year), Aspinall, through no fault of his own will no longer be the interim champion.

“The interim champion can only exist when there is the absence of an undisputed champion. And therefore the moment the bell rings for Jon Jones’s next fight there is no longer an interim champion. The moment the bell rings, the undisputed champion has returned, which means Tom Aspinall sitting in the front row with his shiny belt is stripped instantly,” he added.

While Chael has referred to certain ‘government by-laws’ for making the surprising claim that Aspinall will be stripped of his championship, that doesn’t seem to be the case. In boxing, interim championships are governed by laws and bylaws made by the respective sanctioning bodies (WBA, WBC, IBO, etc.). However, in the case of MMA, since the promotions are private entities, essentially, whatever the promotion decides goes. And the UFC could easily decide Aspinall will remain the interim champion even after Jones fights Miocic.

Jones is not on board to fight Aspinall

Despite the massive groundswell and demand from the fans, Jon Jones has indicated numerous times that he is not very interested in fighting Tom Aspinall to unify the heavyweight title (nor has he been offered the fight by Dana White-led UFC, according to Luke Thomas).

And this, of course, has not gone down well with the fans and the UFC world, in general. UFC commentator and Jones’s nemesis, Daniel Cormier, for instance, clearly said that he thinks Jones-Miocic made no sense anymore. ‘DC’ felt that the inactivity on Miocic’s part and his advanced age means that he doesn’t expect their bout to be very competitive, and expects ‘Bones’ to win. Not to mention the presence of an interim champion, whom tradition demands the champion fight on return.

“The toughest fight and the most meaningful fight in all of fighting right now is Jon Jones-Tom Aspinall. I don’t even know at this point if it should be Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic… Stipe’s a great guy, but at that age, with that much time off… To go that long without a fight, and the last fight being a brutal knockout, into a title fight with a guy like Jones? I don’t know,” he said.

Jones vs Miocic was perhaps the most hyped fight of last year when it was originally scheduled to headline the UFC 295 card in the iconic Madison Square Garden. However, Jones tore his right pectoral muscle during a training session weeks before the fight, forcing him to pull out, and the UFC replaced it with Aspinall-Pavlovich for the interim belt. And while everyone was excited to see Miocic fight Jones last year, many have changed their minds after Aspinall’s sixty-nine-second knockout of Pavlovich at UFC 295. Except, it seems, for Jon Jones and Dana White.

Do you think that Aspinall would be stripped of his title after Jones vs Miocic bout? Drop your views in the comments.