Dana White is supremely confident that Jon Jones and
Tom
Aspinall will square off in the Octagon, so much so that he is
willing to guarantee the heavyweight title fight happens at some
point next year.
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“Yeah, I’ll say 100 percent [guaranteed],” White said at the
UFC
Tampa post-fight press conference on Saturday night.
Aspinall recently revealed that he
had a conversation with the UFC CEO at UFC 309, where White
assured him that he would get his desired showdown with Jones
sometime down the road.
Jones returned to action in the UFC 309
headliner, where he dispatched Stipe
Miocic via third-round technical knockout in the evening’s main
event at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16. It was a fight that
Jones insisted on keeping intact even after Aspinall become the
promotion’s interim heavyweight king and defended the strap over
the course of the past year while the New Mexico resident healed
from a pectoral injury. In the aftermath of his UFC 309 triumph,
Jones hinted that he would require a substantial payday to unify
the heavyweight title against Aspinall. In other interviews,
“Bones” has also indicated more of an interest in facing UFC light
heavyweight title holder Alex
Pereira.
According to White, Jones takes a much different tone during
negotiations behind closed doors.
“Let me tell you what’s weird about that. So usually those guys say
that s—t behind the scenes and not publicly. Jon says that shit
publicly but not behind the scenes. Jon is a very unique individual
to deal with,” White said.
“From Day 1, I’ve been confident that Jon Jones would do that
fight. I mean even before the [Miocic] fight, I said if he won,
there’s no way Jon doesn’t do this fight. Jon Jones isn’t afraid to
fight anybody and that’s a fact. The only time that anything
remotely weird has ever happened with Jon Jones is the time that
his f—king camp did the weird Chael Sonnen
thing. ‘We can’t fight Chael Sonnen on short notice.’ That wasn’t
him. That was his team, and he listened to his team for whatever
reason. But that’s like the goofiest f—king move in the history of
the UFC. But other than that, Jon Jones behind the scenes is not a
guy that turns down fights.”
It’s rare that White will guarantee any type of hypothetical
matchmaking without formal agreements in place, but it appears that
Jones-Aspinall is a special case.
“100 percent [it’s a priority]. I think it’s probably the biggest
fight in heavyweight history, and it’s a massive in the history of
the company, too,” White said. “It’s a big fight.”