Dana White appears unusually confident that a heavyweight title clash for the ages between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall will happen in 2025.
“I’ll say 100 percent (the fight happens),” White told reporters after the year-ending UFC On ESPN 63 event on Saturday night. “I think it’s probably the biggest fight in heavyweight history, and it’s a massive fight in the history of the company, too. It’s a big fight.”
After months off dismissing the fight, Jones had seemed to hint that he would be willing to fight Aspinall immediately after beating Stipe Miocic to retain his heavyweight title last month, but he’s since gone back to suggesting it might not happen.
However, White says that what Jones says publicly about not wanting to fight Aspinall should be taken with a pinch of salt.
“What’s weird about that, let me tell you what’s weird about that: So usually guys say that (expletive) behind the scenes and not publicly,” White said. “Jon says that (expletive) publicly but not behind the scenes. Jon is a very unique individual to deal with. From Day 1, I’ve been confident that Jon Jones would do that fight. Even before the fight (with Miocic), I said Jon will do this fight. Jon Jones isn’t afraid to fight anybody, and that’s a fact.
“The only time that anything remotely weird has happened with Jon Jones is the time that his (expletive) camp did the weird Chael Sonnen thing, ‘We can’t fight Chael Sonnen on short notice.’ and that wasn’t him. It was his team, and he listened to his team for whatever reason. But that’s like the goofiest (expletive) move in the history of the UFC. But other than that, Jon Jones is not a guy that, behind the scenes, turns down fights.”
