DANA WHITE has issued a defiant message to those claiming Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall won’t happen.
A historic heavyweight title unification bout between the undisputed and interim champions is at the top of MMA fans’ wishlists for 2025.
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Negotiations over the blockbuster bout began after Jones retained his strap with a stunning third-round TKO of Stipe Miocic last November.
Doubts over the mammoth melee coming to fruition, however, are slowly growing with each passing week.
But White addressed the doubters during a recent Instagram Live, in which he announced a spate of fight news.
“Yes you will,” he said after a fan commented that we’re ‘not getting’ Jones vs Aspinall. “It’s coming. Relax.”
White’s insistence that the fight will happen comes just weeks after he suggested the promotion will contemplate STRIPPING Jones if negotiations drag on until the summer.
When asked if they could consider relieving Jones of the belt, White told The MacLife: “One hundred per cent.
“If we don’t get the fight done, we move on, and we make another fight.
“But not last night, but the night before, I was up in my room with my people until like 6 in the morning.
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“We’re working on lots of stuff right now. There’s lots of really good sh*t going on right now.”
Jones, 37, has demanded “f**k you” money to unify the belts against Brit Aspinall.
And White admits the ball is well and truly in the UFC‘s court to meet his demands and deliver what he’s on record as saying will be the “biggest fight” in the promotion’s history.
“There’s no situation,” said the 55-year-old promoter. “It’s the biggest fight we can make.
“I know the fans like to mess with Jon or whatever.
“Jon Jones isn’t afraid of anybody, and Jon Jones will fight anybody.
“It’s just a matter of getting the fight done now. That’s our job.”
Wigan warrior Aspinal claimed the interim heavyweight title in November 2023 with a blistering 69-second KO of Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in Madison Square Garden.
And he retained it in a similarly brutal fashion last July with a 60-second demolition of Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in Manchester.
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