‘We’re In Negotiations Right Now’

Things could be moving faster than anticipated when it comes to the UFC booking a Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall title unification bout.

While UFC CEO Dana White has primed MMA fans for a long wait before Jon Jones emerges from seclusion with his competitive juices flowing, Tom Aspinall is saying negotiations for a fight with “Bones” are already underway.

Aspinall was in New York City at Madison Square Garden to watch Jon Jones beat Stipe Miocic. Following that fight, Jon said he wasn’t ready to retire quite yet, and if the UFC paid him enough money he might give people the fight they wanted. Aspinall was treated like Voldemort, but we know who he was talking about. And following a 3AM meeting with White, Aspinall left the arena in positive spirits.

He remains that way back home in the U.K. where he did a Q&A on his YouTube channel. When asked about Jones, he made it sound like things were moving.

“Yeah, we’re in negotiations right now,” he said. “That’s the honest answer. So we don’t know when the fight is going to be, but I’ll be ready to go whenever. I’m back in the gym now. I’m back in the gym training, as always. And I’ll be ready to fight when they let me know. Until then, I’ll be improving, I’ll be getting better. So no great rush on that.”

“Obviously, I want to fight as soon as possible. But, right now, we’re just waiting on a date. That’s it.”

That’s good news for everyone, because the UFC heavyweight division is in a terrible state if you take out Jones vs. Aspinall.

“The heavyweight division, the talent pool is a lot smaller than most of the divisions,” Aspinall said when asked about exciting prospects. “Right now there’s not really any guys that I’ve got my eye on coming through that I think, ‘Yeah, he’s going to be really good.’ There’s guys coming through all the time, but right now I only really look at the top ten, top fifteen. So anyone coming through is probably not on my radar just yet.”

If Jones’ demands for ‘F— you’ money are too wild, we could end up with Aspinall vs. the winner of Ciryl Gane vs. Alexander Volkov at UFC 310. In a separate interview, Tom shared his thoughts on that.

“I think it’s a 50-50 fight,” he told Casino Hawks. “I know they fought before, and it was an absolute stinker — the first one was terrible. Since I fought Volkov, he’s improved a lot. He’s changed his training situation, and Gane has been inactive. Gane seems to fight once a year against opponents who suit him quite well.”

“It’s hard to say; Volkov has been very active. I think he fought four or five times since we fought a couple of years ago, which is a lot for an elite heavyweight. I still think it’s a close fight, though, because I believe Gane is very good and smart, but I think it’ll be a lot closer than the last one, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Volkov pulled it off.”