On 29 April 2025, Tom Aspinall will become the longest-reigning interim champion in UFC history. The Englishman will break the previous 534-day record set by former 135lbs kingpin Renan Barao. Not the ruby one would like to have in their resume! And when the UFC landed in London for its 16th outing, the usually polite, respectful, and amicable champ taunted Jon Jones yet again by holding up a plastic duck on camera while being cage side. As you well know, that was a genius reference to ‘undisputed’ heavyweight champ Jon Jones dragging his feet on fighting him.

While the Englishman did hint that the unification bout may be officially announced soon, ‘Bones’ has not accepted to fight Aspinall yet. Most fans, of course, are incensed at the GOAT contender’s lengthy negotiations with the promotion and feel he is afraid of Aspinall. However, UFC star Kevin Holland is totally on board with ‘Bones’ dragging things out.

“But on the Jon Jones thing, it’s like, you know, I’m going to stand up for him a little bit on this one,” Holland told Michael Bisping and Paul Felder on their ‘Believe You Me’ podcast. ‘Trailblazer’ had nothing but praise for Jones, and pointed out that “Jon Jones is the greatest to do it in his time frame. And now he’s actually doing it in a different time frame.”

Holland feels that everything ‘Bones’ has done in the sport entitles him to “play it like a Floyd Mayweather.” These words, of course, would be like nails on a chalkboard to all fight fans. Floyd Mayweather, after all, was reportedly infamous for ducking strong opponents, protecting his undefeated streak at all costs, and putting money over the sport. In fact, one of the main reasons for the decline of boxing is the ‘Mayweather-ization’ of the sport.

But the UFC is supposed to be different. Dana White, who learned from the mistakes of boxing, once said that the UFC is where the best fight the best. And doing a Mayweather move is the exact opposite of that promise. But Holland feels Jones should do what  is best for Jones “and play it like how these old school boxers played it.”

“I’m going to play it as smart as I can. I’m going to be the OG in the game. Yeah, we may not like it. Yeah, it may suck. Yeah, we may want to see the fight tomorrow. But the older I get the smarter I will play the game. You’re fighting a young, hungry guy. Take your time, fight him when you’re ready,” Holland added.

In addition, Holland felt Aspinall was making a mistake by saying he will not defend his interim belt anymore, and only wants to fight for the undisputed belt. “I mean why not? You’re the baddest in the world. Go knock out another guy. Shouldn’t be nobody in the way from you getting your paycheck and there should be nobody in the way from you doing what you do,” ‘Trailblazer’ declared.

This is the philosophy Kevin Holland personally lives by. He fights every chance he gets, and at two different weight classes no less. So sitting out when you can fight and earn that sweet PPV cut would be something he doesn’t understand. It is also the reason he finds ‘Bones’ reportedly wanting six months to prepare for the interim champ “wild.”

But in good news for Tom Aspinall fans, Holland made these comments to Bisping, who never tires of singing his English compatriot’s praises. Surely ‘The Count’ would have disagreed with Holland. Well, actually no!

Michael Bisping joins Kevin Holland and criticizes Tom Aspinall’s refusal to defend interim title

As far as Jones dragging his feet on fighting Aspinall is concerned, we know where Bisping stands on that. The exasperated former champ told TalkSport’ in an interview last week that “the heavyweight champion of the world fought in November. Why they haven’t made this matchup is beyond me.” In fact, the former champ felt that if this was “any other sport if this was boxing, you would be stripped,” and urged Jon Jones to “hurry up with this fight, simple as that, or retire.”

While he did not say this to Holland, he did agree with ‘Trailblazer’ that Aspinall should defend his interim title. “I have said that exact same thing I said it to Tom Aspinall when he said he didn’t want to fight anyone I said ‘You’re crazy, you’ll beat all these other guys, you’re going to beat him.’ Stack up the money, keep making your case.’

But as we have already mentioned, Aspinall did meet with UFC matchmaker Hunter Campbell this weekend and has promised big news shortly. So maybe Jones-Aspinall is finally happening, maybe even this year so the Englishman doesn’t need to defend his interim belt at all. Or maybe it’s just another false positive, in which case ‘Trailblazer’ and ‘The Count’ want Aspinall to stay active. What do you think about their thoughts on the Jones-Aspinall situation?