Dana White is currently doing all he can to make a fight between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall.
The heavyweight champion defended his belt for the first time by knocking out Stipe Moicic at UFC 309 in November.
Post-fight, talk immediately turned to his next fight. Interim titleholder Tom Aspinall has been waiting in the wings for a chance to unify the division since knocking out Sergei Pavlovich to become the secondary champion at UFC 295 in November 2023.
UFC boss Dana White believes Jones vs Aspinall could be the biggest fight ever – but not everyone wants to see it.
Dricus du Plessis doesn’t want to see Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall
UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis recently named Jones on his five-man GOAT list.
In almost the same breath, the South African slugger explained why he doesn’t want to watch ‘Bones’ square off against Aspinall, despite the fact their potential fight is highly anticipated in the MMA community.
“The Tom Aspinall fight, let me tell you this,” du Plessis said during an interview with Mark Bouris.
“Tom Aspinall, I’ve met him, he’s an incredible guy, an awesome man. So humble and nice. A gentle giant, until he gets in there, of course.
“It’s a fight I don’t need to see because the world wants to see this. I love Aspinall. I think he’s phenomenal. In the heavyweight division, he has grappling, wrestling, and incredible striking – you don’t see that with heavyweights.
“Jon Jones is years ahead of everybody, especially at heavyweight, until Aspinall came along. I mean, we saw what he did with Ciryl Gane.
“Aspinall is young, hungry. You have Jones, who is definitely at the end of his career. What is he 38 years old? I don’t need to see this because he has never been beaten. I don’t need to see Jon Jones fight Tom Aspinall because I don’t want either one of them to lose.
“I want Jon Jones to retire unbeaten. Of course, he had that DQ for a 12-6 elbow that is now legal – but unbeaten and the legend that he is. I want him to retire, and Aspinall can go on to be the next big thing.”
Dricus du Plessis will never write off Jon Jones
Du Plessis understands that Jones vs Aspinall is likely to go ahead despite his protestations, so he’s offered some thoughts on the intriguing matchup between the UFC’s two heavyweight champions.
He added: “Jon Jones being the warrior that is says, ‘Pay me enough and I’m doing it’.
“Aspinall wants it. One of them has to lose that fight. You look at it and go, ‘Aspinall is probably going to win’. If you ask me that, ‘No, no, no’. We’ve said that so many times with Jon Jones and he makes it look easy. He is the greatest of all time, for sure.
“You can’t deny that up until this date since fighting has existed that he is the GOAT.”
Du Plessis has his own big fight to focus on right now. On Saturday night, he’ll square off against Sean Strickland in a middleweight title rematch at UFC 312.
Khamzat Chimaev waits in the wings for the winner. So does Nassourdine Imavov after his knockout win over Israel Adesanya at UFC Saudi Arabia this past weekend.