Tom Aspinall insists the Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic fight has been given a better billing than it deserves.
Aspinall’s sights are firmly set on the outcome of UFC 309’s main event as the interim heavyweight champion and official back-up fighter for the bout.
Jones defends his heavyweight title against Miocic this weekend at New York’s infamous Madison Square Garden.
The showdown should set the stage for Aspinall to unify the heavyweight division and cement his status alongside Jones as one of the sport’s all-time greats.
However, this vision has been disrupted by Jones himself during fight week, as he believes a bout with Aspinall would tarnish his legacy in the UFC.
“In all honesty, who is really that interested in this fight being a title fight?” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel before flying to New York.
“I’ve never said anything bad about Jon Jones‘s career or Stipe’s career and I never will. I respect what they’ve done in their careers — amazing careers.
“What I’ve got against this fight in particular is it’s contested for an undisputed heavyweight title.
“Now for me, and I’m seeing online for a lot of other people, this is far from ‘undisputed’.
“This is the most disputed title that you can possibly get because there’s two champions, and one of the champions, Jon Jones, is avoiding the other champion, me.”
Aspinall finished Jake Collier in 45 seconds on his UFC debut in July 2020, which set a precedent for things to come.
He has finished five of the top ten ranked UFC heavyweights in the first round and has the shortest average fight time in UFC’s history.
With eight finishes since 2020—second only to Kevin Holland—he also has racked up the highest number of knockdowns per 15 minutes inside the octagon, averaging over four.
“He’s chosen to fight a 42-year-old Stipe, who’s had a fantastic career—both guys have had a fantastic career—great legacy, but let’s be honest.
“These are two old farts fighting each other for a title and occupying it, which is a bit weird, nobody that I can see really gives a s*** about this fight.”
Last week, Jones said he would ‘more than likely not’ fight Aspinall, should he get past Miocic, as the 31-year-old Brit ‘hasn’t proven anything.’
He walked out of an interview on Thursday with talkSPORT’s Adam Catterall, who was set up with TNT Sports at the time, claiming that it was ‘going to be an Aspinall fest’ in regards to the questioning.
‘Bones’ has also told fans that he’s in a ‘legends only league’ at the minute, when revealing that he would only fight Alex Pereira in the UFC’s current roster.
“Jon gets his wires crossed a lot,” Aspinall added. “See the thing with Jon is: he’s a bit like a politician, he likes to control the narrative of what fans think.
“I have never once come after Jon’s legacy, it’s unbelievable. His legacy is going to be far superior to mine and most of the guys who are fighting in the UFC never had a problem with his legacy.”
“The problem is he has the heavyweight title and I’m the number one heavyweight in the world,” Aspinall added.
“Since I’ve been a young boy, since I first started training me and my dad have had this dream that I’m going to be the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion of the world and he’s got it and he’s holding it hostage and he won’t fight me.
“If you kick my a*** in front of the whole world I’m happy to put my hand out and go listen, ‘You’re the better man, no problem, you took my dreams away from me, but at least I tried.
“But this ducking and diving is something that I don’t really have respect for… Jon is the champion and he won’t fight me and he says that he won’t fight me because it’s too much of a gamble.
“Jon, if you’re not into gambling your legacy, that to me sounds like you’re scared of losing against me.”
UFC 309’s main card is set to begin at 3am GMT for UK fans on Sunday.
Welsh fighter Oban Elliot, who told talkSPORT.com exclusively that it was his dream to fight at Madison Square Garden, challenges Bassil Hafez in the early prelims, which is scheduled to begin at 11pm GMT on Saturday night.
The New York event also has Michael Chandler facing Charles Oliveira in what is set to be a blockbuster five-round co-main event.
Bo Nickal takes on Scotland’s Paul Craig in the middleweight division for UFC 309’s main card too.
And UFC legend Jim Miller could potentially make his last-ever octagon appearance in the prelims, as he contests his 57th MMA bout against Damon Jackson.
