It appears that things are not looking good for Tom Aspinall after a recent update came to the fore regarding his impending fight against Jon Jones. UFC legend Chael Sonnen has proven time and time again that he’s got some pretty legitimate sources of information with his updates. This time, the 47-year-old’s update appears to have come directly from one of Jones’s close confidantes, and it’s not good.

Jon Jones has already revealed that he’s been honest with his intentions about the Tom Aspinall fight, but he doesn’t understand why Dana White and Co. don’t make it public. When Dana White learnt about this, he was quite surprised by ‘Bones’s comments. Now, it appears that the UFC CEO may not have wanted to reveal what was going on with Jones because one of his coaches told Chael Sonnen that the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion has no intentions of returning to action in 2025.

Jon Jones’ inactivity has already sparked major outrage in the MMA community, as a petition has been launched to strip him of the title. But the UFC doesn’t seem to take any action regarding it. Sonnen also mentioned that the plans for Jones to return are possibly in 2026, which, to him, meant that the consensus GOAT may want Tom Aspinall to carry on with his run and get some fights under his belt.

“I spoke to somebody very close to Jon. I spoke to one of Jon’s coaches. I did say, ‘Hey, is he gonna fight Tom?’ And he said, ‘I think so, next year. I do not think he will this year,” Chael Sonnen stated in a short clip from one of his YouTube videos he posted on Instagram. “My interpretation of that, I think what Jon is looking for is for Tom to do something else. Jon said, ‘Go fight somebody else.'”

However, Chael Sonnen appears to underline a major issue with Jon Jones fighting Tom Aspinall in a year’s time. He spoke about a couple of issues, but the most important one is perhaps the possibility of the level of interest taking a dip when it comes to this title unification fight. Here’s what he had to say.

Chael Sonnen is worried about fans losing interest in the Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall fight

The fans’ interest in Jon Jones to fight Tom Aspinall took shape back in November 2023 when the English star won the interim gold with an impressive knockout win over Sergei Pavlovich. But Dana White decided to pair Jones up with Stipe Miocic, which kind of disappointed the fans. Even after that fight went down, the fans are still waiting for the Tom Aspinall fight. Now, in the wake of the undisputed champ’s coach claiming 2026 is the target, Chael Sonnen claims the UFC is at risk of losing out on this matchup.

One of the primary reasons is how long the fans can keep their interest in this matchup and Jon Jones, which is a situation that’s going around with Conor McGregor and his delayed comeback. Moreover, there is also a chance that Tom Aspinall may never get to fight Jon Jones if he happens to drop the interim belt in his next few fights before ‘Bones’ decides to make his comeback. All these factors, for Chael Sonnen, spell trouble for Dana White’s plans to put up arguably the biggest fight in UFC history.

“We’re talking about a year from now. You’re talking about I wanna see Tom fight two or three more times. Will Tom be the champion [after] two and three more [fights]? Because if we go a year from now and Tom’s not, where would be the interest in seeing Jon come back three fights from now? You know how rich Tom’s gonna be?” Chael Sonnen added. “It’s a big risk… Who under contract can you possibly imagine could command the kind of money that Jon is being offered, even if it’s a year from now?”

Well, what do you have to say about this update on the Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall fight? Drop your comments below.