If he can’t fight for undisputed gold,
Tom
Aspinall would prefer to defend his Ultimate Fighting
Championship interim heavyweight title instead of sitting on the
sidelines.
Aspinall won the title with an emphatic knockout victory over
Russian knockout machine
Sergei
Pavlovich at UFC 295 in November. The matchup was put together
at the last minute after
Jon Jones was
forced out of his scheduled title clash against
Stipe
Miocic due to an injury.
Despite Aspinall having won interim gold, UFC CEO Dana White has
made clear that Miocic will still get the next shot when Jones
returns to competition. While Aspinall had initially rallied for
Jones to be stripped off the title, the Englishman has now
seemingly shifted focus. Aspinall recently expressed interest in
defending his interim strap against the winner of the UFC 299 clash
between
Curtis
Blaydes and
Jailton
Almeida at the Kaseya Center in Miami on March 9.
The idea of facing the Blaydes-Almeida winner was presented to
Aspinall on social media. Aspinall suffered his lone Octagon defeat
against Blaydes when he injured his knee 15 seconds into the
opening round of their UFC Fight Night 208 encounter.
“Winner of Blaydes Almeida sounds good,” Aspinall wrote on X.