Tom Aspinall is counting the days until he can get back into the octagon, even if not everyone seems to believe him.
It’s been an awkward heavyweight title reign for Aspinall, who was promoted from interim champion to undisputed status following Jon Jones’ retirement in June 2025. Aspinall’s first title defense as undisputed champion ended in disaster for all parties involved as challenger Ciryl Gane poked him in the eye in the opening round, leading to the bout ending in under five minutes and being declared a no-contest. Making matters much worse, Aspinall is still on the mend from the eye injuries suffered in that fight.
UFC CEO Dana White initially seemed to downplay the severity of Aspinall’s injuries, later clarifying he didn’t intend to “say anything negative” about Aspinall, but the two are still not on the same page.
“He’s not said it in so many words, but he’s like alluded to it,” Aspinall said of White’s criticism during an interview with Fight Your Corner. “I would love for that to be the case.
“It’s been a shit time. It’s like you said, if you’re not fighting, you’re not earning. So, like, I’m not sitting here for fun. I’d love to be fighting. I’d love to be on these big cards and these big nights. I didn’t work since I was 10 years old to sit on the sidelines.”
While Aspinall and White appear to be working things out, a recent business move on Aspinall’s side added a new wrinkle to the conversation. Aspinall signed a management contract with Matchroom Boxing boss Eddie Hearn, who has playfully feuded with White on multiple occasions, including over White’s budding Zuffa Boxing promotion. However, this latest move sparked some very real conversations between Hearn and White about a potential fight between the promoters, which White has since dismissed.
Aspinall had his concerns about being a pawn in the Hearn-White feud, but so far his relationship with Hearn has been a good one.
“A little bit, but once I figured out the finer details of the relationship that me and Matchroom have, I was obviously happy, I signed a long-term contract,” Aspinall said. “So I’m happy with it. I’ve got a lot of people like Tony and other people I know personally who worked with Matchroom. No one who I know personally has a bad word to say about them, stuff like that goes a long way with me.
“Also, when I met Eddie and Frank [Smith] and the rest of the team, sometimes you sit down with someone and you think it might go well and you just don’t click in person or whatever, but when we all met it just seemed to work right away, so we did it.”
Regardless of what White or anyone else has to say, the question still remains: When is Aspinall going to fight again?
In his absence, Alex Pereira and Gane compete for an interim heavyweight title at UFC White House on June 14, with Aspinall presumably facing the winner. Aspinall hoped to be able to provide a timetable for his potential comeback fight, but that talk is once again on pause for now.
“At the minute, I’ve just had my recent scan,” Aspinall said. “I thought it was going to get cleared actually to spar and fight straight away, but they actually said they’re giving me another couple of months, so I’m just waiting because the cells in your eye take a little bit longer to heal, so as soon as they’re healed, we should be good to go.”
