UFC CEO Dana White has no issue about Tom Aspinall defending his interim belt, but the executive won’t give him Stipe Miocic or Jon Jones for his next fight.

The interim heavyweight champion has always been vocal about his intent to fight Jones before the 36-year-old American retires. However, “Bones” plans to have his light fight against Miocic, but the bout has to be rescheduled as the UFC waits for him to recover from his injury. With this, Aspinall made several callouts to Jones, which even led to a demand to strip the champ of his belt (although he later retracted it). He even suggested he was fine with fighting Miocic and would fight Jones afterward in case he wins. White, however, doesn’t think it should be pushed, especially for Miocic, now 41, who possibly only has one fight left on his plans.

“Well, that ain’t happening,” White told TNT Sports about the possibility of Aspinall fighting Miocic. “Stipe, you have to understand this, if you look at what Stipe’s accomplished in this sport, what he’s done, where he’s at in his career, he wants the Jon Jones fight, and I get it. Arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time versus the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. He wants that fight.

“It’s a big legacy fight for both guys. He was ready for that fight, it was 10 days out or something, and you pull it out and now he’s fighting Aspinall? [Miocic] wants Jones and Jones wants Stipe, so it makes sense.”

Despite this, White said that he wouldn’t stop Aspinall if the Briton would propose a fight to defend his interim belt. Yet, as the executive reiterated, Jones’ belt will be preserved, adding a Jones battle is also impossible.

“No,” White said about Aspinall’s callout to Jones for a fight. “And we’re not stripping Jon Jones either. He’s the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. You’re a young guy. You were injured there for a while. You’ll get your shot. Just wait. This fight has to happen and then we’ll figure out what’s next for you.”

“Aspinall could possibly fight again, I don’t know. We’ll see how this plays out going into the next year, but Jones and Stipe, the fight, they both deserve it. Jon Jones got injured, there’s nothing he can do about it. I don’t know, we’ll see what happens in ‘24.

“If Aspinall wants to fight before that fight happens, why not? Why not let him defend it?”

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