Let us tell you a mind-boggling fact. On April 29th this year, Tom Aspinall will cross Renan Barao as the man to hold the crown of an interim UFC champion with a record of 535 days. Says a lot about the state the Englishman finds himself in during the peak of his career. Well, it is safe to say that there cannot be two champions in one division. Having the UFC world title around your waist means you are the very best in that weight class.

Of course, if a champ gets injured or has an accident, having an interim champ until the real title holder remains out of action is totally fair. But having an interim champ and an ‘undisputed’ champ, both of whom are fighting other people, as is the case for the UFC’s heavyweight division in 2025, just makes no sense and is plain wrong.

That is essentially what interim UFC heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall, who is desperate to fight ‘undisputed’ champ Jon Jones told journo Adam Catterall in a recent interview. And if ‘Bones’ doesn’t agree to fight him soon, Aspinall plans to move on.

“So we need to find out who the guy [the real heavyweight champion] is. If it’s not Jon Jones, get out the way, I’ll take the title, I’ll fight someone else, happy days,” Aspinall said. On being asked when he wants the unification bout, Aspinall replied with a simple “ASAP [as soon as possible]”.

Catterall suggested that the “International Fight Week [in the last week of June] sounds nice, doesn’t it.” To which the Englishman agreed, before clarifying that he doesn’t really care about when they fight, he just wants to fight Jon Jones and do it soon.

“I like it, I like it. Anytime sounds good for me but I’m ready to go whenever I’ve told them [the UFC] that as well,” he added.  Moreover, the Englishman also revealed that he would gladly defend the undisputed belt if Jones isn’t ready in time against another worthy opponent. But International Fight Week seems off the table for their heavyweight title unification bout if Ariel Helwani’s recent revelations are true.

Why Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall is almost definitely not happening International Fight Week

According to Ariel Helwani, Jon Jones wants six months to prepare for a Tom Aspinall title unification bout. Since the Canadian MMA journo made this revelation on his ‘MMA Hour’ show earlier this week, it seems that the UFC’s International Fight Week, which is about three months away, is out of the question.

If Aspinall is lucky, he may get to fight Jones by the end of the year. But since the GOAT contender is yet to sign the contract, the interim champ may have to wait until next year. So assuming Jones accepts the fight, and assuming the fight cannot happen beore late 2025/early 2026, what would the Englishman do?

Well, he has two choices. One, sit out and wait. Or two, fight someone else in the meantime for his interim belt. But will Dana White not strip Jones if the New Mexico resident doesn’t agree to fight Aspinall soon? Probably not. The UFC CEO believes that Jones-Aspinall will “probably be the biggest fight we’ve ever done,” and is thus probably going to let ‘Bones’ keep the title as long as there is a non-zero chance he might agree to fight the interim champ. How long could that be?

Well probably a couple of months, maybe even until the end of the year if Jones gets injured or is unable to fight for some other reason out of his control. Either way, International Fight Week seems off the table for ‘Jones-Aspinall’. What do you think about Tom Aspinall’s aforementioned thoughts on the Jon Jones fight?