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Tom Aspinall finally got his chance to get face-to-face with Jon Jones for the first time during an appearance at the Arnold Sports Festival in Birmingham, England, on Saturday.
The impromptu meeting took place while Jones was meeting fans and taking pictures. Aspinall approached Jones from the crowd as a sea of onlookers snapped photos of the men, who respectively hold the interim and undisputed UFC titles in the heavyweight division.
Ever since he captured the interim belt this past year with a stunning knockout of Sergei Pavlovich, Aspinall has called for a fight against Jones. But the reigning heavyweight champion has waited for a chance to face Stipe Miocic once his torn pectoral muscle heals.
Despite repeated callouts, Aspinall eventually stopped making noise about fighting Jones. But he still brought up the possibility when they met at the sports festival.
“Are we going to do this thing?” Aspinall said to Jones in a video he posted to his YouTube channel.
“I would hope so,” Jones responded.
Aspinall then asked for a photo, but Jones declined his request for a faceoff. They still stood together as a few pictures were snapped.
All in all, it was a fairly friendly encounter, outside of Aspinall placing his hand on Jones’ shoulder; the fighter often called MMA’s GOAT quickly brushed that off. There was seemingly no ill will, though it’s clear that Aspinall still wants his chance to face Jones in the future.
“I would love to – respect,” Aspinall said to Jones. “I would love to have the honor one day.”
Jones answered back, “Maybe one day.”
Jones also stated he’s healing up slowly but surely as he continues working toward his return to action later this year. There’s no timeline for his fight against Miocic, but it’s expected the heavyweights will square off before the end of the year.
As for Aspinall, he’s committed to staying busy and recently accepted a challenge from Curtis Blaydes, who defeated him in 2022 when he suffered a knee injury in the first round. Blaydes is about one week removed from second-round knockout win of Jailton Almeida, but there’s no word yet if the UFC will book the fight.
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