Topics: Tom Aspinall, Jon Jones, UFC, Dana White, MMA
Tom Aspinall revealed what Dana White had told him about the prospect of a fight with Jon Jones.
Salford star Aspinall, the current UFC interim heavyweight champion, has for months been calling for a fight with Jones to unify the division.
Indeed, Jones is the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, having defended his belt last month against 42-year-old Stipe Miocic last month.
And speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Aspinall said that UFC chief White had insisted that he would get his bout with Jones.
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“Right after that press conference I had a meeting with Dana,” Aspinall told Piers Morgan. “So in all honesty I was expecting to come, and we would negotiate a little bit, but he literally walked into the room and said, ‘It’s happening.’
“And I said, ‘Well he’s going to want loads of money’. And he said, ‘I know, but it’s happening. And it’s going to be the biggest fight in UFC history.’”
When Morgan questioned if that meant Jones had agreed to the fight, Aspinall responded: “In all honesty, nobody knows what Jon Jones is doing. Even the UFC.”
Asked if White would pay Jones an enormous fee for the bout, Aspinall said: “I imagine so. I can’t speak for Dana but I would imagine so.”
Aspinall said that he would not be getting a similar fee to Jones, adding: “I don’t really care about money at this point. Obviously, I’ve got a family, I want to make as much money as I can, but to me what’s more important is unifying the belts.”
Elsewhere, Aspinall said: “Let me first start by saying Jon is absolutely elite. And I completely agree with the notion that he's one of the best fighters ever."
Morgan responds by asking the 31-year-old if Jones can be classified as the greatest UFC fighter ever, to which Briton added: “Potentially. But the way that I look at it is, he has failed a couple of drug tests.
"To me, that rules you out of being the best of all time. For me personally, yeah.”
