Tom Aspinall is still waiting to fight Jon Jones for the UFC heavyweight title. The long wait hasn’t stopped him from making UFC history.
Jones is currently the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion. He claimed the vacant belt in 2023, soon after Francis Ngannou vacated the title, with a quick submission of Ciryl Gane. Unfortunately, Jones has been incredibly choosy with his fights since then. He has fought just once since winning the title, battering a shopworn Stipe Miocic to a third-round TKO win last fall.
The fight with Miocic was the source of a lot of controversy for Jones and the UFC. That’s because Aspinall is the promotion’s interim heavyweight champion, which should mean that he gets a shot at the undisputed belt before anybody else — even a legend like Miocic. Instead, Aspinall was forced to defend his interim belt against Curtis Blaydes last summer — just months before Jones fought Miocic. Considering interim belts are intended to keep a division moving while the undisputed champ is away, it was all quite farcical, but to borrow a popular MMA adage, it is what it is.
The silver lining for Aspinall is that he has made some history while waiting around for Jones. Having won his interim title with a first-round knockout or Sergei Pavlovich way back in November of 2023, he has now surpassed Renan Barao’s interim title reign at bantamweight to become the longest-reigning interim champ in UFC history.
MMA Fighting reporter Jed Meshew was first to point out Aspinall’s new record.
Tom Aspinall is now the longest reigning interim champion in UFC history, surpassing Renan Barao
Tom Aspinall: 535 days
Renan Barão: 534 days(h/t @JedKMeshew) #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/LU0qYHP9fY
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) April 29, 2025
