Tom Aspinall has officially done waiting for the return of UFC Heavyweight Champion Jones and started training for two specific opponents.
A few weeks ago during a storm on X (formerly Twitter), UFC heavyweight champion Jones seemed to confirm his retirement of the sport in the middle of his continuous saga with Tom Aspinall.
Despite the collapse of Jon Jones on X, UFC boss Dana White confirmed at the UFC 316 Post-Fight Press Conference that Jones previously accepted a fight against Aspinall and was not aware of his activity on social media.
Not long after, the UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion claimed that Jones has reached his time limit and will soon be stripped of his title, making the Brit the undisputed champion.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Aspinall reveals the two heavyweights he is now training to fight
Although Aspinall continued to train in training during the entire heavyweight Titelsaga, he was unable to train for a specific opponent.
However, because he has now given up for waiting for 'Bones', the Brit has revealed which two heavyweight contenders he has specifically started to train.
“This week I train for (Alexander) Volkov and (Jilton) Almeida,” Aspinall said in the commentary section of a message about Instagram.
In 2022, Aspinall headed in the UFC for the first time when the promotion returned to London. The favorite in the birth city took on Alexander Volkov and completely dominated the Russian and ended it in the first round.
Since then, Volkov has achieved four wins and only one loss, but his loss for Ciryl Gane last December was very controversial, and even Dana White apologized for him for 'robbed'.
Jilton Almeida, on the other hand, was once considered an almost guaranteed future champion in the UFC. Nevertheless, a loss for Curtis Blaydes temporarily stopped his momentum last year.
The Brazilian managed to bounce back from the loss with back-to-back first round finish, which put himself in the title again.
Almeida responds to Asinall's training statement
After the interim training statement of the champions, 'Malhadinho' responded to Aspinall and called on Dana White and Co to book the fight.
“Tom Aspinall, make sure I am ready to fight you! Send the UFC contract. Glad the champion says my name, I'm ready to go,” said Almeida.
Despite the hope of Almeida that he will fight for the title, it is unclear in which direction the UFC will go and whether they will still have the hope that Jones will return.