John McCarthy Predicts 2 Ways Tom Aspinall Dethrones Jon Jones as the Undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champ in 2025

Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall is the biggest fight that can be made in the entirety of MMA at the moment. In fact, UFC CEO Dana White has touted the bout as “the biggest fight ever” in the entire history of the sport. And we’re likely to agree with the head honcho. After all, this is probably the first time in anyone’s memory that the undisputed heavyweight champion has opened as the betting underdog.

Aspinall, after all, is a natural heavyweight (unlike Jones), and has a remarkably well-rounded game as well as youth on his side. Like Jones, Tom Aspinall has also proven himself to be a generational talent, absolutely destroying his opponents in a way ‘Bones’ never could. This is why it wasn’t surprising to see legendary MMA referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy predict that the English interim champ will become undisputed this year, in one of two ways.

“I have Tom Aspinall being the UFC heavyweight champion in the year 2025. Now that can happen one of two ways, Josh. It’s gonna happen. He’s going to face Jon Jones and he could be the first person to defeat Jon Jones-” McCarthy said, before adding a caveat to his first prediction.

“But if he doesn’t, I see Jon Jones stepping away from the sport and the UFC is gonna end up putting Tom Aspinall against somebody else and he’ll win the title that way. So he’s gonna end up being the UFC champion heavyweight champion – undisputed champion – in the year 2025,” ‘Big John’ told co-host Josh Thomson on their Weighing In podcast.

Jon Jones could choose to retire without fighting Aspinall, and the Englishman is promoted to undisputed status by default. Or, Jones could retire and the UFC could have Aspinall fight someone else for the undisputed belt. Either way, the UFC world seems convinced that Aspinall will be the undisputed heavyweight champ by the end of this year. But just how Aspinall does it depends on one very important factor that is out of the Englishman’s hand.

Top Comment by Jtj

Jon will fight for a large payday.aspinall needs to prove himself when he gets 37yrs old.

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What is the status of the Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall fight?

All we know about Jones-Aspinall at the moment is that the UFC and ‘Bones’ are negotiating to make it happen. Jones, of course, has asked for “f**k you money” to fight Aspinall. Joe Rogan has claimed that Jones wants an eye-watering $30 million for it, although that is not confirmed.

It is worth noting that Dana White has promised fans that the fight is happening. This means that the promotion has already come to an agreement with the GOAT contender, or at least are pretty confident they eventually will. On the other hand, Tom Aspinall has admitted that he really doesn’t care about what the UFC pays him for an undisputed clash – he just wants to fight Jones for the belt.

Of course, there is still the possibility that Jones and the promotion fail to reach a deal (if they haven’t already) and ‘Bones’ retires, or fights someone else. After all, ‘Bones’ is very interested in fighting the light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira. ‘Poatan’, of course, is currently smaller than Jones and has almost no proven ground game to speak of, making him a stylistic dream for ‘Bones’. For his part, Pereira, too, has called repeatedly for a heavyweight title fight. And while the possibility of Jones-Pereira next is slim, there still is a chance. What do you think about John McCarthy’s Tom Aspinall-related prediction?