Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready. It’s not just a popular motivational mantra; for Tom Aspinall, it’s precisely how he’s approaching UFC 309.
“I’m ready to go,” the interim UFC heavyweight champion told Uncrowned on Monday’s launch of The Ariel Helwani Show, confirming he’ll serve as the official backup fighter for the planned Nov. 16 bout between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic. “I will be ready on November 16 if I need to be.”
Though Aspinall is doing a full training camp to remain prepared in case of emergency, he’s not fully convinced his services will be needed. “My gut’s telling me ‘no,’ to be honest,” he said when asked if he feels Jones or Stipe will need a replacement, now less than five weeks away from UFC 309. “Do I think it’s going to happen? Is it likely? In my opinion, probably not. But will I be ready? Absolutely.”
It was late October 2023 when a torn pectoral tendon forced Jones out of UFC 295, where he was originally scheduled to face Miocic in November 2023. In the year that’s passed since, Aspinall has recorded two first-round knockout victories over Curtis Blaydes and Sergei Pavlovich. Those two fights lasted for a combined two minutes and nine seconds, which might be one reason Aspinall is eager to fight. But make no mistake, he’s not chasing anyone in particular — or their accolades.
Back in August, Jones commented on a video of Aspinall, writing, among other things, “I absolutely guarantee he will not win more world championships than me. That’s truly all that matters at the end of the day. There’s been many champions, no one like me. I sleep good at night.”
Aspinall disagrees with that sentiment.
“I don’t want to win as many championships as him. I just want to be the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. That’s all,” Aspinall said, suggesting he’s here for a great run, not a long run. He added, “I want to make as much money as I can in the shortest amount of time possible and then bounce and do something else. I want to get out of this sport healthy. Once I’ve done what I want to do, I have no interest in being the best heavyweight ever and fighting into my forties. No interest at all in it.”
That said, the interim champ isn’t quite certain the age he’ll call it a career.
“Right now, I feel amazing,” he said. “I feel on top of the world. I feel like the best heavyweight walking on the planet Earth. Head and shoulders skill-wise above anybody else in the division. Right now I don’t have any thoughts about stopping.”
In a world where his services aren’t needed on Nov. 16 and the scheduled fight between Jones and Stipe happens, Helwani asked Aspinall for his prediction. “I would edge towards Jon just because he’s younger and he’s a little bit fresher than Stipe,” the interim champ said. “Stipe, let’s be honest, we don’t really know where he’s at. He’s definitely the best heavyweight of all time, but he’s also like 42 years old. We have no idea what he’s going to look like. It is heavyweight MMA, you absolutely never know, and that’s why this sport is so damn exciting. I would say, probably 60-40 [in favor of] Jon.”
Regardless of outcome, Aspinall promises he has “big, big, massive plans” for the future. While he won’t lay them out in detail just yet, he spoke calmly and confidently, assuring that there are “other options in place” if the winner of Jones vs. Stipe doesn’t fight him.
“[If] one guy wants to retire, one guy wants to continue, both guys want to retire — whatever, we’ve got all bases covered,” Aspinall said.
