DANA WHITE has given a defiant update on the eagerly anticipated heavyweight showdown between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall.
The heavyweight title unification bout has STILL yet to be finalised, despite it being in the works since last November.
Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall has been in the works since last November[/caption]
Jones has been the king of the heavyweights since March 2023[/caption]
UFC supremo Dana White has hit out at the ‘bulls**t’ claim[/caption]
But former three-time UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen sensationally claimed last week that a date for the mammoth melee has been “AGREED“.
White insists that couldn’t be any further from the truth, saying of Sonnen’s massive claim last weekend: “Everything you hear is bulls**t until we say it.”
The delay in finalising the bout has only increased MMA fans’ belief that Jones and Aspinall won’t share the octagon.
But White remains steadfast in his insistence that the pair, 37 and 32 respectively, will share the octagon.
“I’ve said it many times, that’s the fight we want to make this year,” he said. “[I’m] still super confident [it happens].”
He later added: “I’ve said since Day one that this would be the biggest heavyweight fight in the history of the company and the history of the sport.
“This will be a big one.”
White also provided clarity on the middleweight title picture, confirming that undefeated phenom Khamzat Chimaev will face champion Dricus Du Plessis later this year.
He said: “We all know that fight is happening, the Du Plessis vs Khamzat fight.
“It’s happening, it’s just not happening [at] International Fight Week.
“That fight is done. It’s just not happening on that one [UFC 317].”
Hall-of-Famer and former 205lbs king Jones hasn’t set foot inside the octagon since his brutal spinning-back kick KO of Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 last November.
Aspinall, meanwhile, was last in action last July at UFC 304 in Manchester, where he decimated Curtis Blaydes in 60 seconds to avenge his 2022 loss to the American.