Tom Aspinall blames Jon Jones for ‘holding sh*t up,’ reacts to UFC 304 interim title defense

Tom Aspinall made sure to let fans know that the lack of movement in the UFC’s heavyweight division has nothing to do with him.

The interim heavyweight champion will defend his title against Curtis Blaydes in a rematch in the co-main event of UFC 304, which takes place July 27 in Manchester, England. Aspinall reacted to the booking, and responded to fans who say he is the one holding things up.

“That’s not me, that’s someone else at the top of the division,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel. “It’s not me. I’m here to fight people. [I] love this stuff, this is what I was born to do, this is what I wanted to do since the year started — since the last fight against Pavlovich — I’ve wanted to get back in there. ...”

“Bit of a strange conundrum with my division,” Aspinall continued. “Usually, when the champ is coming back, the interim [champion] would obviously fight the champ. Jon Jones is holding sh*t up, let’s be honest. He’s playing games, so me and Curtis Blaydes though. We have history, we fought before — granted it was 15 seconds, it wasn’t an actual fight. I got injured, Curtis takes the win, but now it’s time to get a bit of payback.”

Jones hasn’t competed since winning the vacant heavyweight title with a submission of Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in March 2023. Jones has suffered a pair of injuries, but is back in the gym with his eye on a rebooking with former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic.

For Aspinall, who won the interim belt with a first-round finish of Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 this past November, he’s happy with the Blaydes rematch, as the challenger holds the only octagon victory over him due to an injury stoppage in the opening seconds of their UFC London bout in July 2022.

“If I’m not going to fight Jon, which obviously that’s not going to happen right now, this is the ideal situation,” Aspinall explained. “So [I’m] very, very happy, very, very motivated, for it. I’m going to put absolutely everything into the training camp, absolutely everything into the lifestyle, and, yeah, looking forward to it very much.”