Dana White has lifted the lid on the difficulties in arranging the much-hyped heavyweight title showdown between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall.
The fight, dubbed by the UFC boss as the ‘biggest’ possible heavyweight title fight in the company’s history, has become MMA’s ‘golden goose’ over the past several months, as both the UFC and Aspinall himself struggle to confirm the fight which has caused a bottleneck atop the division.
White has previously stated that he is “100 percent” confident that the bout will be confirmed in 2025 – and speaking post-fight to reporters, including The Mac Life – he said that Jones has agreed terms, and all the remains to resolve is the small print.
“I’ve been saying it since the beginning. Jon Jones agreed to do the fight,” White said. “Jon Jones was offered the deal and accepted the deal. Jon agreed to fight Tom, yes.
“You guys have heard me for the last however long, I guarantee this fight is going to happen. This fight’s going to happen. You guys told me the crazy shit that’s going on Instagram, and all these other places, but yes, I’ve been saying Jon is going to fight Tom.”
This comes amid renewed rumours that Jones may instead opt to step away from the sport – a situation that White said he would be powerless to stop, if that was the decision that the longtime former light heavyweight champion arrived at.
“Listen, if [Jones] wants to retire, and doesn’t want to fight, nothing you can do. I didn’t want Khabib to retire. I thought [Daniel Cormier] could have stayed in it longer. It’s none of my business. I’ll do what I can to make the fight if we can. If he’s talking that crazy shit, I didn’t realise that.”
All that said, White admitted that there is only one logical move to make for the future of the division – regardless of statements made by Jones about his preferred options for his next fight.
“It’s Aspinall’s fight. We’ve been talking to this kid forever about it and it’s his fight. Listen, you can’t make people fight. If Jon doesn’t want to fight, you can’t make him fight. We can try to make him fight. We can throw things at him that inspire him to want to fight but we’ll figure it out.”
