UFC legend and top MMA analyst Chael Sonnen recently reported about a possible change in the heavyweight title picture following Jon Jones‘ triumphant outing against former two-time champion Stipe Miocic. However, it appears that these reports, which involved Dana White stripping Tom Aspinall off the interim title, were misleading, to say the least.

Chael Sonnen, during the recent ‘Good Guy/Bad Guy’ episode, appeared apologetic about his error in reporting. ‘The American Gangster’ has been on point with his claims more often than not, but a rare slip-up happened with his reports regarding Tom Aspinall, who’s still listed as the interim champion on the UFC’s website. “I have a correction. I was told by a very good source, James Madison… [that] while the press conference was going on, that Dana White had announced that they were, in fact, making Tom Aspinall relinquish the interim championship. That is fake news,” Sonnen stated.

The root of the confusion about the interim title status stems from the fact that when Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic were staring at each other inside the Octagon with just a few minutes to go for their fight, Bruce Buffer announced that the ‘undisputed title’ up for grabs. This, for most people, only meant that Tom Aspinall’s run as the interim champ may come to an end, which is the norm.

“They introduced him [Jones] as the undisputed champion. They said the fight was for the undisputed title… So somehow, they’ve not stripped Tom.”, Chael Sonnen added. “They need to but I’m just sharing with you [that] I announced that on ESPN’s platform here. I’ve got to go back and correct that. That did not happen at the press conference and I apologize.”

A similar thing occurred almost a year ago when Jon Jones was unable to show up to his UFC 295 against Stipe Miocic due to an injury. Due to inactivity, several people called for him to be stripped of the undisputed title, which also included Tom Aspinall.

Previously, Tom Aspinall wanted Jon Jones to get stripped of the undisputed title

After Tom Aspinall’s epic knockout win over Sergei Pavlovich to become the interim heavyweight champion, he started rallying for the big fight against Jon Jones. In the meantime, he laid bare his thoughts on Jones’ holding the undisputed title hostage as he recovered from his pectoral injury. The reports at that time regarding his recovery period remained ambiguous, which prompted Aspinall to claim that ‘Bones’ should be stripped, which is something that other former champions, like Jiri Prochazka did after getting injured. Aspinall even offered himself to take on Stipe Miocic as a replacement for Jones at UFC 295.

“I think Jon Jones should be stripped from the title to be honest, because everyone else does when they get injured like that,” Tom Aspinall told UFC legend Michael Bisping on YouTube. “I don’t see why he’s still got it, I don’t understand that [because] I think I should be the real champion right now… Stop protecting your boy Jon Jones at the top. If he’s injured, get out of the way and I’ll fight Stipe.”

Well, things went according to what Dana White had planned, and Jon Jones defeated Stipe Miocic, marking his 12th successful title defense. Now, all the UFC CEO wants is to set up the Aspinall vs Jones fight, which he believes could be the biggest fight that the UFC has ever made. But it all depends on how the initiation between the concerned parties turns out.