Jon Anik is ready to declare Tom Aspinall the undisputed champion. The Brit is about to defend his interim heavyweight title against former rival Curtis Blaydes. The UFC commentator recently made a case for why Tom Aspinall could be considered champion despite Jon Jones holding the heavyweight title belt.
Jon Anik recently sat down for an interview with InsideFighting. There he shared his thoughts on the current state of the heavyweight division. During the conversation, Anik made an interesting point stating that he would consider Tom Aspinall‘s interim title defense at UFC Manchester to be equal to an undisputed title defense.
If Tom Aspinall defends the interim championship, as far as I’m concerned, that is an undisputed championship title defense.
Jon Anik on InsideFighting
The UFC commentator highlighted how the same situation occurred at middleweight. Israel Adesanya had fought Robert Whittaker and he considered it a title defense despite being the interim champion. Jon Jones is the current UFC heavyweight champion. He was supposed to defend his title against Stipe Miocic. However, Jones has been out since last year due to injury.
Anik argued that a champion cannot be claimed champion if they did not defend their title even once. He declared Jones and Aspinall to be the two undisputed heavyweight champions of the UFC. It will be interesting to see if Aspinall can retain his interim title or lose it to Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304.
Curtis Blaydes feels Tom Aspinall should fight Jon Jones
Interestingly, Tom Aspinall’s opponent also believes the interim champion should be fighting Jon Jones for the heavyweight title. Curtis Blaydes recently voiced how he felt about his upcoming fight at UFC 304. The UFC heavyweight did not seem too excited about the opportunity to bag the interim title.
Curtis Blaydes (Via Reuters)Blaydes recently did an interview backstage at UFC Denver. There, the American mentioned that the upcoming showdown does not feel like a title fight. He also complained about the odd hour at which the fight will take place and stated that the UFC would not do it to their star contenders like Conor McGregor.
In a perfect world, it’s Aspinall vs. Jon, but that’s not the world we live in… The biggest difference is it’s gonna be like 4 a.m.,… You wouldn’t have McGregor fight at 4 a.m. regardless of where it is in the world. That makes it feel a little less, but I don’t care. I’m getting the title-fight purse money. That’s all that matters.
Curtis Blaydes at UFC Denver
Curtis Blaydes and Tom Aspinall previously locked horns at UFC Fight Night 208 back in 2022. However, the fight barely lasted a round. Fifteen seconds into the fight, Aspinall injured his knee and the referee stopped the fight. That was Tom Aspinall’s first loss in the promotion. It will be interesting to see how he fares this time at the Co-op Live arena in Manchester, England.
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