Will Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall ever meet for the UFC heavyweight championship? - ESPN

The moment Tom Aspinall was handed the interim heavyweight belt on Nov. 11, 2023, after knocking out Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 is when he earned the right to challenge undisputed champion Jon Jones to unify the belts. But since that time, Jones hasn't been all that interested in obliging.

He can be forgiven for not entertaining the fight initially because he was recovering from injury. But Jones is the reason there was an interim heavyweight championship fight; he had to bow out of his scheduled title defense against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 because of a torn pectoral muscle.

Aspinall stepped into the spot Jones vacated on the UFC 295 card and finished Pavlovich on two weeks' notice. He then successfully defended his interim belt against Curtis Blaydes in July 2024. So when Jones knocked out Miocic in his return from injury at UFC 309 in November, a unifying bout between Jones and Aspinall became the only logical next step.

Yet, here we are, nearly a year since Aspinall's last fight, and still a unifying bout hasn't been booked. UFC president Dana White continues to assure the MMA community that the fight will happen, going so far as to publicly proclaim at the UFC 316 postfight news conference last week that «Jon Jones was offered the deal and accepted the deal.»

Jones' social media seems to tell a different story, though.

Where is the truth? Take a look back at all the talk, social media posts, fakeouts and speculation over the past year and decide for yourself.

Dana White explains to Stephen A. Smith that Jon Jones has never turned down a fight and that Jones has no aversion to fighting Tom Aspinall.

July 27, 2024: Just 60 seconds into his first defense as UFC interim heavyweight champion, Aspinall knocks out Blaydes