Dana White Guarantees Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall Happens in 2025

Dana White is supremely confident that Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall will square off in the Octagon, so much so that he is willing to guarantee the heavyweight title fight happens at some point next year.

“Yeah, I’ll say 100 percent [guaranteed],” White said at the UFC Tampa post-fight press conference on Saturday night.

Aspinall recently revealed that he had a conversation with the UFC CEO at UFC 309, where White assured him that he would get his desired showdown with Jones sometime down the road.

Jones returned to action in the UFC 309 headliner, where he dispatched Stipe Miocic via third-round technical knockout in the evening’s main event at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16. It was a fight that Jones insisted on keeping intact even after Aspinall become the promotion’s interim heavyweight king and defended the strap over the course of the past year while the New Mexico resident healed from a pectoral injury. In the aftermath of his UFC 309 triumph, Jones hinted that he would require a substantial payday to unify the heavyweight title against Aspinall. In other interviews, “Bones” has also indicated more of an interest in facing UFC light heavyweight title holder Alex Pereira.

According to White, Jones takes a much different tone during negotiations behind closed doors.

“Let me tell you what’s weird about that. So usually those guys say that s—t behind the scenes and not publicly. Jon says that shit publicly but not behind the scenes. Jon is a very unique individual to deal with,” White said.

“From Day 1, I’ve been confident that Jon Jones would do that fight. I mean even before the [Miocic] fight, I said if he won, there’s no way Jon doesn’t do this fight. Jon Jones isn’t afraid to fight anybody and that’s a fact. The only time that anything remotely weird has ever happened with Jon Jones is the time that his f—king camp did the weird Chael Sonnen thing. ‘We can’t fight Chael Sonnen on short notice.’ That wasn’t him. That was his team, and he listened to his team for whatever reason. But that’s like the goofiest f—king move in the history of the UFC. But other than that, Jon Jones behind the scenes is not a guy that turns down fights.”

It’s rare that White will guarantee any type of hypothetical matchmaking without formal agreements in place, but it appears that Jones-Aspinall is a special case.

“100 percent [it’s a priority]. I think it’s probably the biggest fight in heavyweight history, and it’s a massive in the history of the company, too,” White said. “It’s a big fight.”