UFC 300: Tom Aspinall makes case against interim title defence amid talk of Alex Pereira fight

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Tom Aspinall has performed down the suggestion that he ought to defend the interim UFC heavyweight title, with a supply telling The Independent that no contact has been revamped a fight between the Briton and Alex Pereira at UFC 300.

The historic occasion, scheduled for 13 April, continues to be and not using a headline bout, and only a few of the corporate’s greatest stars appear to be out there for the landmark occasion – with the exception of Aspinall and light-heavyweight champion Pereira. As a outcome, many followers have referred to as for Aspinall to defend his interim belt against the Brazilian.

Yet Aspinall has now made a case against defending the interim title, and Pereira advised final week that he would want extra time to arrange for a heavyweight fight, having solely debuted at light-heavyweight in July after a middleweight run that led to the title in 2022. Furthermore, a supply informed The Independent on Friday (5 January) that the UFC has not made contact over a bout between the Briton, 30, and the Brazilian, 36.

Aspinall turned interim heavyweight champion by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich in November, after Jon Jones’s deliberate title defence against Stipe Miocic fell via when the previous suffered an harm. Aspinall’s victory appeared to set him up for an undisputed title fight with Jones, however the UFC appears intent on rebooking Jones vs Miocic later this 12 months.

“Surely if you’re interim champ, your next fight should be to fight for undisputed? Come on,” Aspinall tweeted on Thursday (4 January). “Stipe is one of my favourites. Loads of respect to him, his Résumé is way superior to mine [right now]. That being mentioned, the UFC has by no means been about this. It’s about who’s the very best proper now, and I consider that’s me and it’s solely proper I get to show it #freeaspinall.

“Final enjoyable reality: Since stipe final gained a fight (Aug ‘20), I have blown my knee out, went thru the rehab process and had a year off, also had 7 UFC fights, including 4 wins vs top 10 ranked opponents and won the interim title on 2 weeks notice.

“Absolutely, Stipe has a great Resume and is a legend in his own right. So has Tony [Ferguson]. Maybe we should give him a shot at the undisputed title next too?” Ferguson is a former interim lightweight champion, who has lost his last seven fights, while Miocic is a former two-time heavyweight champion, who has not fought since March 2021.

Miocic, 41, was knocked out by Francis Ngannou on that occasion, losing the heavyweight title for the second time. However, the American is widely deemed the greatest heavyweight in UFC history, while Jones is a former two-time light-heavyweight champion and the consensus best fighter in the history of that division.

Pereira won the light-heavyweight belt by stopping Jiri Prochazka on the same night as Aspinall’s title win, having beforehand held middleweight gold from November 2022 till April 2023.

He informed The Mac Life in December: “I fought at middleweight, and I had to reset my body to go up to fight at light-heavyweight. I’m a fighter; I’ll fight anybody anywhere. I have the height and the size of a heavyweight, but this is a thing that’s got to be programmed, [I’ve got to] put some work in.

“It’s not just something I can jump into. I want to do things the right way. I can definitely fight at heavyweight, maybe some day in the future, but it’s got to be something that’s well planned. So, right now I’m focused on my light-heavyweight reign.”

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