Tom Aspinall is about to become a fighting (interim) champion.
UFC 304 will mark the return of arguably Heavyweight’s finest fighter on July 27, 2024. Unfortunately for the interim titleholder, Aspinall, he’ll be defending against perennial top contender, Curtis Blaydes, rather than unifying his belt with the undisputed champion, Jon Jones’.
Instead of fighting the Brit, Jones’ previously scheduled legacy title fight against former two-time champion, Stipe Miocic, is expected to get rebooked. Miocic, 41, believes the fight could happen around the same time as it was supposed to last year in November. Most of the community, including UFC Bantamweight champion, Sean O’Malley, have been on the fence about the match up since it fell through and Aspinall became the interim champion.
“It’s hard to deny the activity,” O’Malley said on his TimboSugar Show. “Tom Aspinall, he’s in it. This game is f—king just … two, three years you don’t fight, you ain’t s—t. That’s just how it’s looked at.
“I don’t know why, I just picture Jon Jones smoking Stipe,” he concluded. “In my head, that’s just always how it starts and plays out.”
When it comes to activity levels, Jones’ Heavyweight debut saw him earn a first round guillotine over Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in March 2023 (watch highlights). The fight was only Jones’ second of the decade after previously earning a unanimous decision against Dominick Reyes in his final Light Heavyweight title defense,
Miocic has also only fought twice since 2019, going 1-1 with his last fight resulting in a second round knockout against Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 in March 2021. Aspinall, on the other hand, joined UFC in 2020 and is 7-1 since then (14-3 overall). His lone loss came in 15 seconds against Blaydes when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in July 2022 (watch highlights).