UFC interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall believes Jon Jones may prefer to fight Alex Pereira rather than him.
Aspinall returns to the Octagon in Manchester, England, to defend his UFC interim heavyweight title against Curtis Blaydes. If he wins, he could face the winner of Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic in a title unification bout.
Given Jones’s apparent lack of interest in fighting Aspinall, there’s speculation about whether the match will happen. In a recent interview, Tom was asked if Jon might instead focus on Alex Pereira and responded in affirmative.
“Yeah, he might do,” Aspinall said of Jones. “That’s way more likely than Jon Jones fighting me. Way more likely. Well, he’s going to get more money fighting Alex Pereira than he is me first of all and it’s an easier match-up. I’m not saying he doesn’t want to fight me, I’m saying that there’s more favorable match-ups. If the shoe was on the other foot, I would do the same.
It’s unusual for Aspinall to be defending his interim belt, but he has stated that if he defeats Blaydes this Saturday, he wants to fight on the same card as Jones vs. Stipe Miocic and defend his title again.
“Oh get me on that card, please,” Aspinall said. “Absolutely (I’d want to be on that card). We’ll see, let’s see if they fight first, let’s see what happens with that because we don’t know.”
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