Tom Aspinall slams Jon Jones for ‘holding the shit’ in the heavyweight division… as UFC interim champion insists ‘it’s time to get some revenge ” against Curtis Blaydes

Tom Aspinall has hit out at those who claim he is to blame for a perceived lack of movement in the heavyweight division, saying one of his rivals is “holding the shit together”.

Aspinall is the current interim UFC heavyweight champion after defeating Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295, with reigning champion Jon Jones having not fought since March 2023.

Jones beat Ciryl Gane for the then-vacant title, before suffering two injuries which kept him out of action, although he has since returned to the gym.

So fans would naturally be looking forward to a huge clash between Aspinall and Jones, but it appears Bones is eyeing an Octagon date with former champion Stipe Miocic.

While Aspinall does not yet appear to be in a position to face Jones for the chance to turn his interim supremacy into an official title, some have claimed that the British fighter is to blame for the delay in a possible crossing of paths.

The interim heavyweight champion is set to face Curtis Blaydes in a rematch of their 2022 clash (2022 photo)

Aspinall criticized Jon Jones – the reigning champion – for “slowing the shit down” when the two were yet to face each other.

“It’s not me, it’s someone else at the top of the division,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel.

‘It is not me. I’m here to fight people. (I) love this kind of stuff, this is what I was born to do, this is what I wanted to do since the beginning of the year – since the last fight against Pavlovich – I wanted to go back.

“It’s a strange conundrum with my division,” Aspinall continued. “Usually when the champion comes back, the interim (champion) would obviously fight the champion. Jon Jones holds shit back, let’s be honest.

“He plays games, so me and Curtis Blaydes. We have a history, we fought before – even though it lasted 15 seconds, it wasn’t a real fight. I got injured, Curtis gets the win, but now it’s time to recover a little.

Aspinall will face Curtis Blaydes in the co-main event of UFC 304, which is scheduled to take place in Manchester in July.

It will be a rematch from two years ago, when the British fighter injured his knee early on and therefore missed out on victory.

As such, despite not getting his title shot with Jones, Aspinall admitted he was still “very, very motivated” by a chance at revenge.

“If I don’t want to fight Jon, which obviously isn’t going to happen at the moment, that’s the ideal situation,” Aspinall explained.

Aspinall suffered a devastating knee injury early in his 2022 clash with Blaydes

“So (I’m) very, very happy, very, very motivated for this. I’m going to put absolutely everything into training camp, absolutely everything into the lifestyle and, yeah, I’m really looking forward to it.

The huge card in Manchester will be the first sporting event to take place at the £365million Co-op Live Arena, the UK’s largest indoor entertainment venue.

However, despite the excitement of a UFC return to England, fans will have to contend with a late night – with the main card set to begin at 3am BST.