Dana White Remains Confident That Jon Jones Will Fight Tom Aspinall

A potential clash between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall appears to be closer to becoming a reality.

While Aspinall is the interim champ, Jones has long delayed a heavyweight title unification bout against the Englishman. There were even talks of former light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira surpassing Aspinall for a superfight against Jones.

However, that discussion seems to have ended after Pereira lost his title to Magomed Ankalaev via a unanimous decision at UFC 313 on Saturday. UFC CEO Dana White also acknowledged the same and confirmed that Jones will fight Aspinall. While hopes of the matchup were initially bleak, White now claims that Jones as agreed to the bout and the promotion is looking for a date and place. White also reiterated a previous statement that the plan is to hold Jones vs. Aspinall sometime in the summer.

“Jon Jones definitely wants the fight, just when and where is what we’re working on now,” White said at the UFC 313 post-fight press conference. “I’m very confident that that fight happens.”

Aspinall’s hopes were also raised by White’s recent comments. “Honey Badger” believes things are close for the bout to come fruition.

“Jon, there’s only one way, there’s only one thing to do mate,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel. “Sign the contract and let’s get a date going. We’ve seen [on Saturday night], Dana White was talking, everything is now done on Jon’s side. And the UFC now have to find a date and a venue. So we’re waiting for that, we’ve got some good news coming hopefully.”

Jones returned to action after a three-year hiatus in 2023 and made quick work of Ciryl Gane to win the heavyweight title at UFC 285. While he was scheduled to defend his strap against Stipe Miocic, Jones was sidelined due to an injury. Aspinall went on to win the interim strap against Sergei Pavlovich in the meantime and then defended it against Curtis Blaydes. Jones remained adamant on preserving the fight against Miocic, whom he beat via third-round TKO at UFC 309 this past November.