'Glad MMA can move on': Tom Aspinall, fellow fighters react to Jon Jones retiring, finally dropping UFC title
Tom Aspinall is finally the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion.
(Chris Unger via Getty Images)
The seemingly endless saga of Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall is finally over. UFC CEO Dana White announced Saturday that Jones has elected to retire rather than fight Aspinall in blockbuster bout to unify the UFC heavyweight titles. As a result, Jones vacates his UFC heavyweight belt and Aspinall, the interim champion for the past 19 months, has been promoted to undisputed champion status.
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The news marks a bittersweet end to Jones' bizarre heavyweight reign, which began in March 2023 with a first-round submission of Ciryl Gane and ultimately contained only one title defense — a November 2024 showdown against Stipe Miocic, who was 42 years old at the time and hadn't won a fight since 2020.
After spending the majority of the past two years trying to convince Jones to face him, Aspinall now takes up the mantle as UFC heavyweight king having already almost cleared out the rest of the division's top ranks. The Englishman is 8-1 under the UFC banner, with his lone loss coming in a setback to Curtis Blaydes that saw Aspinall tear his ACL just 15 seconds into the match; Aspinall swiftly avenged that outcome upon his return with a 60-second destruction of Blaydes this past July to defend his interim belt.
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In his first statement Saturday as undisputed champion, Aspinall posted a clip of White's announcement and promised fans that they'd finally get "an active undisputed champion."
For you fans. It's time to get this Heavyweight division going. An active Undisputed Champion
Considering how long the MMA world waited for resolution to the Jones-Aspinall situation, and Jones' standing as one of the most decorated — yet controversial — figures in the sport's history, it's not a surprise that his long-awaited decision prompted a flood of reactions from his fellow competitors.
A sampling of those reactions can be read below.
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People on the outside looking in call this a sport, but I want to ask: why do you call it a sport?' I gave him my definition of a sport, basically two people or teams engaging in an athletic competition to attain victory in accordance to the rules set in that sport. I call it a sport because the definition of a sport is two people or two teams using their bodies in an athletic competition to win. Oh, oh, you said team, just, and that ain't- I said people or team, because like tennis, tennis is a one-on-one sport, it's a sport. You know, it's because it's two people playing against each other unless it's doubles. 'So what do you call it when two men are at war with each other?' Wilder asked. 'In the streets, you can have two guns—may the best man win. May your accuracy beat mine. But do people consider gun violence a sport?' I disagreed with the two things being related. 'But you have to have skills, you have to have skills. You have to have skills to point that gun. You have to have skills to scope that sight. You have to have skills to be accurate. You know, a lot of people are amateur when it comes to it, but you have to have, if you have the dominant skills, then you become a veteran, you know? And with this, this is totally a business. People on the outside looking in don't understand the business of boxing. You know, for me to say this is a sport, it's like a masking agent, you know what I mean, to what really occurs in here. Over 13 fighters dies a year, and it's probably more than that. What other sport that you want to call, you see people losing their lives in, as the business of boxing?' I didn't disagree with overall concept he presented, but I didn't see how it related to him saying, 'I want a body on my record.' There's a difference between saying you know a fatality is a possibility and saying that you want that on your record. 'At the end of the day, if I get hit in the head a certain way, I could die,' Wilder continued. 'So my words aren't far-fetched. I'm trying to bring attention to something, because I don't like how people always want to be politically correct. If I'm risking my life, I feel like I can say what I need to say.' Wilder and I weren't going to agree on this subject, and I said it in the conversation, and I questioned if that was truly how Wilder felt as I recalled watching the way he reacted after he knocked out Artur Szpilka in 2016. Wilder was legitimately concerned and he admitted that in the interview. Watch the finish here. 'You gotta have that warrior mentality,' Wilder said. 'It can sound distasteful. It can sound a certain way. But if you're not a gladiator, if you're not a warrior in there, you don't understand what this really is. You won't fully get what I'm saying,' Wilder said. 'And I'm not apologetic about it. I'm right there in it. Because if something happens to me and I die in that ring—God forbid—then we're talking about a whole different situation. Everything I've said would be seen in a different light, because it actually happened.' I heard him, and while I still didn't agree, I understood Wilder more in this conversation than I'd ever had watching his career for the past 13 years. I respected Wilder taking time to answer a question he'd be asked before, and one challenging a controversial point of view. While he may seem simplistic to some–as a man and fighter–he's a bit deeper than most would give him credit and I came away from the conversation more fond of him that before. It also made his upcoming fight with Herndon–a bout expected to be particularly one-sided–a bit more interesting. 'This is the return of Deontay Wilder—mentally, physically, and emotionally,' he said. 'I'm taking back my throne. And at the end of the day, man, America needs me. They're putting my logo out every night, waving it. We need our hero back. And I'm gonna answer the call, baby." Boxing is undoubtedly more interesting when there is a formidable American heavyweight on the scene. Wilder is the last one we've seen. 'We don't understand each other,' Wilder said. "Because in reality, bro, we need each other. For sure. The human race needs each other.' We do need you, brother, but not just in the ring. We need you, period.
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