While Stipe
Miocic empathizes with Tom
Aspinall’s situation, he isn’t taking the blame for holding up
the heavyweight division.
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Miocic was originally scheduled to challenge Jon Jones for
the heavyweight title at UFC 295 in November 2023 before “Bones”
pulled out of the event due to an injury. A last-minute interim
title fight between Aspinall and Sergei
Pavlovich was booked to help save the card, and Aspinall
knocked out his Russian foe in the opening stanza.
With no timeline in sight for Jones’ return, Aspinall initially
called for the champ to be stripped off his title. While Aspinall
later called for a title unification clash against Jones, “Bones”
remains adamant on fighting Miocic when he returns. Both Miocic and
Jones have hinted that they might ride off into the sunset after
their potential fight, robbing Aspinall of the chance to fighting
“Bones” for undisputed gold. Meanwhile, Aspinall is now slated to
defend his interim strap against Curtis
Blaydes in the co-main event of UFC 304
in Manchester this weekend.
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Miocic has not fought in more than three years and has recently
received criticism for holding up the division. While Miocic
understands Aspinall’s point of view, he explains that his only
demand to the UFC is to fight Jones when he is ready to return.
However, Miocic notes that the final call in the making of the
fight is the UFC’s and not his.
“I get it. I’d feel the same way but I’m not taking anything away
from him,” Miocic told Shakiel Mahjouri. “The UFC can do what they want.
It is what it is. There’s only one guy I want to fight — it’s
Jon
Jones. But at the same time, the UFC can pick who they want to
pick. People don’t notice that there were a couple of times when I
was ready to fight him and they gave it to another guy. What am I
supposed to do? I’m not holding up the division like everyone says.
I don’t care. Do what you want and stop crying. I’m not saying he’s
crying. I’m just saying like fans and stuff like that.”