Tom Aspinall has been chasing Jon Jones for almost a year after winning the interim UFC heavyweight title in New York last year but believes he will come up short in his pursuit of the two-division champ.

Jones is slated to defend his heavyweight crown in a long-delayed bout with former champ Stipe Miocic in New York this November in a fight that was delayed by 12 months as Jones recovered from a pectoral injury he sustained in preparation for Madison Square Garden fight.

In his stead, Aspinall stepped in to defeat top contender Sergei Pavlovich by first-round knockout to claim the interim title, which he subsequently defended against Curtis Blaydes in Manchester in the summer of 2024. UFC boss Dana White has stated his belief that, should Jones win he would seek to test himself against Aspinall — statements which were later somewhat contradicted by Jones, who has heavily hinted towards retirement following the fight.

And as such, Aspinall believes that his next fight won’t come from the winner of Jones vs. Miocic, but rather another heavyweight showdown that is currently on tap.

“If them two retire which I think is quite likely, I think it only makes sense to fight the winner of [Alexander] Volkov and [Ciryl] Gane,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel of the fight between the two highly-ranked heavyweights scheduled to feature on the UFC 310 card in Las Vegas in December.

Aspinall’s prediction was underscored by another former champion, Daniel Cormier, who predicted on his own media network that neither Jones nor Miocic would entertain a bout with Aspinall.

“Neither one of those guys is fighting Tom Aspinall,” Cormier said recently. “It won’t happen. It’ll be Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane or somebody. Those guys are fighting each other and nobody else, man.”