White Will ‘Absolutely’ Let Aspinall Defend Interim Title

But not against Stipe Miocic.

UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones is injured and out of action until mid-2024.

In his absence, Tom Aspinall captured the interim crown by stopping Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in New York. The original plan was to keep Aspinall benched until Jones could complete his “legacy fight” against former 265-pound kingpin Stipe Miocic.

Now it seems White is open to letting Aspinall defend the substitute strap.

“Aspinall could possibly fight again,” White told TNT Sports (transcribed by Farah Hannoun). “I don’t know. We’ll see how this plays out going into the next year, but Jones and Stipe, the fight, they both deserve it. Jon Jones got injured. There’s nothing he can do about it. We’ll see what happens in 2024. If Aspinall wants to fight before that fight happens, why not? Why not let him defend it? We’ll figure it out.”

“If you look at what Stipe has accomplished in this sport, what he’s done, where he’s at in his career, he wants the Jon Jones fight, and I get it,” White said. “Arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time vs. the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. He wants that fight, it’s a big legacy fight for both guys. He wants Jones — and Jones wants Stipe. While Jon Jones is injured, if [Aspinall] wants to defend the title, we’d absolutely do it.”

Aspinall is currently ranked No. 1 at 265 pounds, right above former interim titleholder Ciryl Gane. Miocic and Pavlovich occupy the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively, with Curtis Blaydes clocking in at No. 5 (see the entire Top 15 here).

Blaydes is already booked to compete against fast-rising heavyweight hurter Jailton Almeida at UFC 299 in March, so that leaves Gane as the only available contender in the Top 5, though it doesn’t sound like a fight that “makes sense” to “Bon Gamin.”

UFC matchmakers, however, may not share his opinion.