Every day that passes, Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall is feeling like more of a “what if.”
The UFC heavyweight division’s two champions are existing in entirely different types of breaks as 2025 reached its halfway mark. Jones has been living it up in Thailand after recently filming a Russian reality show, while Aspinall continues to train and hope for his long-awaited unification bout against Jones.
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While Jones’ future in the Octagon remains uncertain, what is certain is that Aspinall has plenty of fights left in him at age 32. The interim champion spoke to Chael Sonnen earlier this week and gave Sonnen further indications of how this saga may play out, which Sonnen shared Monday on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.”
“Tom’s going to fight, and he will get his request that the undisputed belt will be up,” Sonnen said.
“I have a hard time believing that Jon’s done anything wrong. I don’t believe that Jon did hold up the company. I don’t believe that Jon did tell them $40 million over the phone and put a gun in their face. I don’t believe that. I cannot believe that if Jon Jones picks up a phone and [the UFC] goes, ‘Here’s the date and venue, you already know the rules and the weight class,’ I struggle as a person to believe Jon says no and puts the phone down.
“I have a very hard time imagining that Jon is going to walk away from [$40 million]. I know publicly he likes to have some fun. I know that you can hurt his feelings on Twitter, and he’ll change his whole outlook just for those 10 people that did it. But the real guy in there, that’s a dirty, grimy competitor. That’s the same guy who busted his toe against yours truly. That’s the same guy who had his arm extended against Vitor [Belfort]. He finds a way, and I just don’t think that fire has burned out.”
Jones’ heavyweight run has been anticlimactic compared to expectation upon his light heavyweight departure in 2020. The former two-time champion took three years off to build mass for his new division.
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At the time, a mega-fight with lineal UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou was the target that had the entire combat world salivating. But the relationship between the UFC and Ngannou broke down, which led to the latter moving on to boxing and the PFL while Jones made his heavyweight debut against top contender Ciryl Gane in March 2023, winning with a first-round guillotine choke.
Jones, 37, has made it clear he’s looking only for legacy fights to close out his career. His most recent appearance — a third-round stoppage of retired former champion Stipe Miocic — fit that bill.
“When you’re Jon, you jump in this business and you’re like Roy Jones,” Sonnen said. “You’re looking around like, ‘How come I don’t have the big fights? How come I’m not the big money fight. I’m the best guy here.’ Well, [it’s] because you were so dominant. But you do it anyway … you make the walk. You do it over and over again, hoping to get that one night — the highest paid, biggest check ever written by WME.
“Jon took three years off to put on some size, and he’s going to move to heavyweight and spot an opponent 30 or 40 pounds. Right then, he thought that was going to be Francis. He was building his body for Francis. He knew, ‘I can spot this guy 30, 40 pounds, and I can finally create an idea in the audience’s mind that the guy has an advantage.’ That’s what we’ve got.”
Jon Jones doesn’t appear close to fighting again. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
(Jeff Bottari via Getty Images)
Nearly flawless across his 30-fight in-cage career, Jones fought all comers throughout the majority of his 205-pound run, including Sonnen. However, he’s found himself fending off accusations of ducking Aspinall in 2025 — and has played into the sentiment since each of their respective last fights.
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Sonnen’s not buying it though.
“Jon Jones is in the position — everything he’s ever said he wanted, everything he’s proved to us, shown us in sincerity, set out to do,” Sonnen said, “it’s all right in front of him. And so many times this will happen in greatness. So many times, these guys will feel the pressure. So many times, guys will go and have an opportunity to have everything they’ve ever said they wanted, and right when it’s there at the doorstep, they start to realize, ‘I don’t want it.’ I just don’t think Jon’s that kind of guy. I think Jon is as advertised. I think Jon’s a badass, and I do not think Jon Jones is walking away from anything.”
UFC CEO Dana White immediately labeled the heavyweight bout as the biggest the UFC can make after Jones’ win over Miocic. Since then, White has maintained the promotion will get a deal done. Yet as time goes on, interest may be fading — and Sonnen says he’s seen it through his own YouTube numbers.
“I’ve never in my life seen something like this, it’s going the other way. This fight isn’t getting headlines anymore,” he said.
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“I don’t think that’s anything with the UFC and their ability. I think they could flip that script real quick. … I have my own hypothesis, which is the audience is not convinced they’re going to get it. They don’t want to get excited. They don’t want to hear about it anymore. They just don’t believe we can get that fight to the ring.
“This fight is getting smaller, not bigger.”
Jones infamously demanded “f*** you money” when asked what it’d take for him to fight Aspinall after Miocic. Aspinall joked in his chat with Sonnen that Jones is retired and wished him the best, though nothing official has been announced just yet.
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Considering the situation, Sonnen believes what makes the numbers so tricky is whether or not Jones actually does fight beyond Aspinall. Because at heavyweight, that’s about all there is right now.
“No fighter ever — and there’s not an exception, you can go through all their numbers — coming off a victory, fights for less in their next fight than they did in that fight, coming off a victory. Never,” Sonnen said. “So you get a champion, it can be a very tough spot. Jon doesn’t have two fights out there. He doesn’t have three fights that people would be excited about. But Jon doesn’t hold any of the records. He’s got no pay-per-view, no live gate — he has zero records. And it wasn’t a matter of Conor [McGregor] came in and beat him. Jon never had them. Jon was so good and so dominant, we would have lots of people dressed up in empty seats to come to a Jon Jones fight.
“If you come to the table with $12 million for this one fight, you’re not going to get him again. Who’s his next fight? With Curtis Blaydes? It’s with Derrick Lewis? … It’s a much smaller match, but you have to pay him the same thing. No fighter could ever look at him objectively and go, ‘OK, that night was a big night. This one’s less big. We’ve failed at our job promoting.’ They don’t look at it like that, man. They put that thing right on the promoter. That’s where it becomes a problem.
“You could justify $12 million to Jones for Aspinall plus back-end points, which is going to bring it to almost $20 million,” he continued. ” … But you can’t give him that against Ciryl [Gane]. You can’t give him that against [Alexander] Volkov. That becomes the problem. If you are going to do that as a promoter, you better be goddamn sure that guy is going to get beat.”
