Tom shifts focus to Miocic fight after Jones is hurt.

Tom Aspinall has already made history as the third British fighter to capture a UFC championship, but he isn't done yet. After his impressive first-round knockout victory of Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295, Aspinall is now looking ahead to his next fight.

The Manchester-based heavyweight had initially called out Jon Jones, the undisputed champion, who had been scheduled to headline the card in Madison Square Garden before pulling out with injury. Unfortunately, Jones underwent surgery on his torn pectoral tendon and is facing a lengthy spell out of the Octagon.

Aspinall is now setting his sights on former champion Stipe Miocic, who was scheduled to fight Jones before his injury. Aspinall expressed his desire to fight Miocic in an interview with Sky Sports at Old Trafford, saying “Jones is out for the foreseeable, probably for the next year, so in the meantime, I should fight Stipe. Stipe was going to fight Jones, Jones pulled out, so me and Stipe are next I reckon.”

Miocic hasn’t fought since March 2021 when he suffered an emphatic second-round knockout defeat against Francis Ngannou to lose his heavyweight belt. Despite the loss, Miocic is still regarded as one of UFC’s best heavyweights and holds the record for the most defenses of the heavyweight title.

UFC President Dana White had previously alluded that Miocic is still next in line to fight Jones, despite not holding the interim belt. White had said, “That’s the fight they want, that’s the fight that makes sense, that’s the fight that should happen. We’ll see what happens. [Aspinall] took this fight on short notice, obviously he looked great. He’s got plenty of money to chill out for a minute, and we’ll see.”

However, with the severity of Jones’s injury, White may have to rethink his plan in order to avoid holding up the heavyweight division. After all, there has only been one undisputed title fight in the last 31 months.

Aspinall's victory at UFC 295 has opened up exciting possibilities for the future of the heavyweight division, and it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
[Generative AI is experimental.]