Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: UFC, Jon Jones, Tom Aspinall, MMA, Paddy Pimblett
Ben McCrum
The UFC may have finally set a firm deadline for when Jon Jones must fight Tom Aspinall or he will be stripped of the heavyweight belt.
It's been over two years since UFC heavyweight champion Jones won his belt with a dominant display over Ciryl Gane at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Since then, the American fighter has defended his title only once, fighting former champion Stipe Miocic who came out of a three-year retirement to fight Jones in November last year.
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In normal circumstances, such inactivity is frustrating for UFC fans, but it is even more so when the division currently has an interim champion in Aspinall.
With Jones sidelined by a pectoral injury, Aspinall won his interim heavyweight championship title with a first round knockout win over the formidable Sergei Pavlovich in November 2023 and has been outspoken about his desire to unify the belts in a fight with Jones since.
Jones, on the other hand, has clearly been less eager to meet the Brit in the octagon, but a top MMA journalist believes that the UFC may now step in and set a strict date that Jones must face Aspinall by if he wants to avoid being stripped of his title.
Speaking on the Fight Disciples podcast, respected journalist Adam Catterall said: "I think we're going to get to that stage of defend or strip. Whatever happens, the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world has to be contested at Madison Square Garden in November.
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"I know Tom Aspinall will be there. He will be ready to go whether he's got a niggle, whether he's ill, whatever, he'll be ready to fight. If Jon Jones decides that it's not going to be him, then the belt has to come off him.
Later in the podcast, Catterall doubled down, adding: "I'm sure now in the back of their head they've got a cut off point, and that will probably be Madison Square Garden, New York City in November.
"The heavyweight championship of the world will be on the line that night. Tom Aspinall will be one side of it, let's hope that Jon Jones is the other side. If he isn't then that is on him."
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Co-host and fellow MMA guru Nick Peet echoed beliefs of fans that Jones, who is regarded by many as the greatest UFC fighter of all time, is tarnishing his reputation with his apparent reluctance to fight Aspinall.
The 37-year-old is closing in on claiming the record the longest-reigning UFC heavyweight champion, a title currently held by Cain Velasquez after he held the belt for 896 days during his second stint as champion.
But Peet has claimed that this statistic is irrelevant, saying:"It doesn't matter how long someone has got the belt, it matters how many times they defend it. That's why we talk about Jon as the greatest because he had a constistent run at light heavyweight and made back-to-back defences and he was phenomenal.
"This heavyweight run? The only thing you can call it is the greatest duck of all time."
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Peet also revealed that fan-favourite fighter Paddy Pimblett has recently returned to the gym and suggested that this could mean that the Liverpudlian been told to be ready for the November card, with Justin Gaethje as a potential opponent.