Tom
Aspinall put the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s heavyweight
division on notice Saturday.
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In his first fight in a year, the Englishman blitzed Marcin
Tybura for a 73-second technical knockout victory in the
UFC Fight Night 224 headliner at the O2 Arena in London.
Aspinall’s blend of skill and athleticism was on full display, and
he appears to be a difficult matchup for most anyone in the weight
class. That includes Jon Jones, who
Aspinall hasn’t been shy about mentioning as a desired
opponent.
“I think I match up well,” Aspinall said at Saturday’s post-fight
press conference. “It’s a dream fight of mine. I think I’m young
and I’m fresh. I’ve not got loads of miles on the clock. I’m big. I
can do everything well. I’m fast, I’m strong, I’m heavy, which is
unlike a lot of his opponents who he’s fought in the past. I just
think I bring something different to him, and I think he knows
that, as well.”
Aspinall’s callout drew Jones’ attention, as the reigning
heavyweight champion responded with a simple “sounds good” via
Twitter. “Bones” is slated to defend his heavyweight crown against
Stipe
Miocic at UFC 295 in November, and after that, he has hinted
that retirement could be on the horizon.
“Jon
Jones knows I exist. Woo-hoo! That’s a win in itself. I’m
buzzing with that,” Aspinall said. “What I want to do, I’ve been
saying it all week, is I want to win my fights going forward, of
course, but also, another goal of mine is I want to motivate
Jon
Jones to stick around and fight me. Like, that is my absolute
dream.”
However, Jones is not the ultimate goal for the Team Kaobon
representative. His primary objective is to capture UFC gold,
whether it’s held by Jones or someone else.
“It’s not my goal [to face Jon Jones]. I
would love it to happen, [but] my goal is becoming heavyweight
champion,” he said. “That’s my life goal right now. But Jon Jones
would just be an extra bonus. If I could get that, that would be
amazing.
“But if he retired, I wouldn’t be like, ‘Jon’s retired, oh, no.’
I’d be upset, obviously, but it wouldn’t bother me. I’ll fight the
next guy who has the title, no problem.”