As the new year approaches, Tom Aspinall has given his fans a holiday gift. The interim heavyweight champ joined ‘TNT Fighting’ and made his predictions on who he thinks would be the UFC champion at the end of 2025. Starting off with the UFC’s lightest men’s division- flyweight, the Englishman surprisingly claimed that “I would have chosen Muhammad Mokaev but he’s gone.”

Mokaev, of course, was undefeated and expected to fight for the UFC’s flyweight crown soon, before he was unceremoniously fired by Dana White and Co. earlier this year. This is why Aspinall went with the reigning champ to retain his flyweight title by the end of 2025. “So Pantoja, I would say. I’d say he still be there this time next year,” he added.

For the bantamweight title, the Englishman again saw the reigning champ, Merab Dvalishvili getting through Umar Nurmagomedov and keeping his title by the end of 2025. “I mean it it’d be between Merab and Umar I think next year. I don’t know, this is an interesting fight. But I would back Merab, I think,” Aspinall said.

This theme of picking incumbent champs continued in the featherweight division as Aspinall picked Ilia Topuria to still be champion. Until that is, Aspinall’s compatriot, #11 ranked Lerone Murphy fights ‘El Matador’. But since that won’t happen until at least 2026, the Englishman went with Topuria.

“Featherweight, I’d say Lerone Murphy will be getting up there this time next year. But I still don’t think he’ll win a title just yet. I think that’ll be probably the year after… I think Ilia Topuria will still be champion this time next year,” he said. For the UFC’s most competitive division, lightweight, Tom Aspinall was confident that Islam Makhachev would continue his dominant run at least until the end of next year. “Islam’s going to be the champion again next year,” Aspinall opined.

As far as the welterweight title is concerned, Aspinall saw Belal Muhammad clinging on to it, dashing fans’ hopes of the division being rescued by #1 title contender Shavkat Rakhmonov. “I think Belal’s massively underrated and I think he’s still going to be the champion next year,” he added. But his last two picks were the most interesting.

Tom Aspinall sees Khamzat Chimaev becoming champ in 2025

Middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis is set to fight Sean Strickland early next year. However, the MMA community cannot stop buzzing about Khamzat Chimaev, who will also probably fight for the 185lbs gold next year. And while Aspinall has a lot of respect for Du Plessis, he had no doubt Chimaev will be champion by this time next year.

“I’ve picked against Dricus so many times, and I’m not going to do it again. But I think to say that Khamzat Chimaev is not going to be a champion this time next year is just silly. So I’m going to say Khamzat,” Aspinall said.

As far as the light heavyweight title was concerned, Aspinall wasn’t sure. After all, champion Alex Pereira would probably have no choice but to fight #1-ranked Magomed Ankalaev next year. The Dagestani, who although a striker can wrestle is a stylistic nightmare for the pure striker Pereira. This is why Aspinall couldn’t pick between the two and felt either Pereira or Ankalaev would lead the 205lbs division by the end of 2025.

“I think Alex Pereira. I don’t know. I think he’s got a tough fight with Magomed Ankalaev. I think that’s a really tough fight. So I don’t know in that one. I’m going to be on the fence. It’s going to be one of them two,” he added. Unsurprisingly Aspinall picked himself as the UFC’s heavyweight champion going into 2026. This is very likely unless Jon Jones can mount the greatest victory of his career and beat the Englishman. What do you think about Aspinall’s predictions?