Tom Aspinall of England hoists the interim heavyweight title at UFC 295 in New York City. Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Saturday night’s UFC 295 event in New York City was supposed to be one of the biggest moments of Jon Jones’ illustrious MMA career, but by the time it was over, fans the world over were talking about another heavyweight: Tom Aspinall.
England’s Aspinall returned to action in the card’s co-main event, taking on Russia’s Sergei Pavlovich with the UFC’s interim heavyweight title hanging in the balance. The pair’s interim title showdown was thrown together on less than three weeks’ notice, after the undisputed heavyweight champion Jones, who had originally been set to defend his title against Stipe Miocic in the main event, was forced out of action with an injury.
The short-notice circumstances did not seem to be a problem for Aspinall.
Sixty-nine seconds into the fight, the Brit floored his foe with a clubbing right hook and finished him off with a torrent of ground strikes.
Just like that, the interim title was his.
“It’s been a crazy two-and-a-half weeks,” Aspinall said in his post-fight interview with commentator Joe Rogan. “[Pavlovich is] a big scary guy. I’ve never been as scared in my life as fighting this guy, but you know what? I’ve got a lot of power too and I believe in myself. I really believe in myself.”
From the moment Jones withdrew from Saturday night’s card, UFC brass made it clear that the plan going forward was to rebook his fight with the 41-year-old Miocic. While that seemed to make the creation of an interim title totally pointless, it was easy to understand the reasoning. Jones is the greatest light heavyweight of all time—and really one of the best fighters ever, period—while Miocic is widely considered the greatest heavyweight of all time. Even now, when they’re both clearly nearing the ends of their careers, it’s a huge fight.
Still, Aspinall’s win may change things for one simple reason: The new interim champion would be an overwhelming favourite to beat Miocic, and regardless of what the pre-fight odds suggested, seemingly has a real shot at beating Jones.
In fact, he might actually be better than the undisputed champ.
Just look at what he’s accomplished in the UFC. Since joining the promotion in the summer of 2020, the Brit has gone 7-1. His wins have come against the likes of Andrei Arlovski, Sergey Spivac, Alexander Volkov, Marcin Tybura, and of course, Pavlovich. His lone loss, on the other hand, came after he suffered a fluky leg injury just 15 seconds into a fight with Curtis Blaydes.
When we’re talking about Aspinall, however, his record only tells a small part of the story. What makes him special is not just that he’s winning, but how he’s winning. Using a blend of ridiculous speed, ferocious knockout power and slick jiu jitsu, he has finished all seven fighters he’s beaten in the Octagon.
Jones does not have a single legitimate loss in 28 pro fights, and throughout his Hall of Fame-worthy run at light heavyweight, he defeated a staggering list of world-class foes in the primes of their careers, including Ryan Bader, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort, Alexander Gustafsson, Glover Teixeira, and Daniel Cormier.
His accolades as an all-time great are irrefutable, but at the same time, he’s fought just once in almost four years. His lone fight in that span was his heavyweight debut, which saw him defeat Ciryl Gane to claim the title Francis Ngannou vacated earlier this year.
Jones defeated Gane by submission in just over two minutes. It was an impressive feat, considering Gane had survived five rounds with Ngannou a year earlier; however, it told us very little about Jones as a heavyweight. Not only did he spend very little time in the Octagon, but he submitted a guy who is known to have some massive technical deficits in the grappling department. He did what he was supposed to do.
All that to say, Aspinall has been hard at work proving himself against the world-class heavyweights, one after another, while Jones has done almost nothing to that end.
Perhaps the UFC will go ahead with its plans for a Jones vs. Miocic superfight. If that’s what happens, there’s no question it will capture the imagination of fans. The stakes of the fight, however, will most likely be the subject of controversy and questioning.
Jones remains the undisputed heavyweight champion, and would presumably defend his belt in a fight with Miocic, but until he beats the new interim champion Aspinall, it will be hard to consider him the division’s true king.
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