Tom Aspinall's dad reveals disgraceful way fighter found out he was UFC heavyweight champion

Tom Aspinall’s dad has revealed the disappointing way he found out that his son had been upgraded to UFC heavyweight champion.

Aspinall, 32, was upgraded to UFC heavyweight champion, having previously held the interim belt in Jon Jones’ absence from the sport.

Last weekend, Dana White confirmed the news during a press conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.

"Jon Jones called us last night and retired," White said.

"Jon Jones is officially retired. Tom Aspinall is the heavyweight champion of the UFC.

"Do I regret the time that I gave [Jones to decide]? Listen, if you look at what he's accomplished in the sport, no."

He added: “I obviously feel bad for Tom that he lost all that time and obviously money, but we'll make it up to him.

"Tom Aspinall's a good guy. He's been incredible through this whole process.

"He's been willing to do anything, fight him anywhere at any time and do this, and now he's like 'I'll fight anybody - you tell me who and I'll fight them'."

Aspinall, who won the interim belt in November 2023, gave his thoughts shortly after the news broke, and stated that “it's time to get this heavyweight division going”.

Aspinall’s father, Andy, has since revealed the anticlimactic way he found out that his son had been upgraded.

“I found out from Tom,” Andy explained to Uncrowned.

Tom and Andy Aspinall (Credit:Getty)

“At the same time Tom was calling me to tell me that Hunter [Campbell] had told him, Hunter text me saying, ‘Dana [White] has just announced that Tom is the champ’ — which was the same message he had sent Tom.

“I sent a message back to Hunter saying, ‘I can’t think of a worse way you could have done it’. I just think it’s, I don’t know if pathetic is the word — I just feel they didn’t think about it. For me, the heavyweight championship of an organization is quite a big thing and I don’t think Tom deserved to find out at a press conference in the middle of the night.”

“I can’t think of a worse way to do it, maybe if they had’ve woke us up to tell us it would’ve been worse,” he added. “We just happened to be awake at the time. It’s poor man management of Jones and Tom. I like the personnel at the UFC, but for me, they just don’t do things right sometimes. Of course it’s a massively successful business, but I think something like that deserved more thought after everything we’ve been through with this.”