Less than two months ago, UFC CEO Dana White made a rare on-the-record guarantee that Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall for the unified heavyweight championship would take place in 2025.
Nothing has been announced since then, and White indicated Friday that the fight is still far from finalized when speaking to Oscar Willis of The Mac Life.
White first showed enormous interest in booking Jones vs. Aspinall after “Bones” logged his first title defense against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 in November. Jones dismissed facing the interim champion unless he got paid “f*ck you money” by the UFC while also teasing retirement, but White remained confident it would happen.
White stated on the night of UFC 309 that he would not put the division on hold forever, though, and eventually a time would come where he would explore other options. He didn’t set that timeline then, but when asked if the summer could be it, White reinforced that as realistic.
“One hundred percent,” White said. “If we don’t get the fight done, we move on, and we make another fight. But not last night, but the night before, I was up in my room with my people until like 6 in the morning. We’re working on lots of stuff right now. There’s lots of really good sh*t going on right now.”
Whether White and the UFC’s work results in Jones vs. Aspinall materializing remains to be seen. White has stated it has the potential to be the most significant fight in company history, but it appears an unprecedented price tag will have to be dished out to Jones.
Negotiations are seemingly ongoing about what that payout will look like.
“There’s no situation. It’s the biggest fight we can make,” White said. “I know the fans like to mess with Jon or whatever. Jon Jones isn’t afraid of anybody, and Jon Jones will fight anybody. It’s just a matter of getting the fight done now. That’s our job.”
