Featured Image Credit: Piers Morgan Uncensored/Getty
Topics: Tom Aspinall, Jon Jones, UFC, Dana White, MMA
Chris Byfield
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.
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And speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Aspinall said that UFC chief White had insisted that he would get his bout with Jones.
“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.’”
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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.”
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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.”