Tom Aspinall obliged a unique autograph request ahead of UFC 309.
The interim heavyweight champion is in New York for fight week as he prepares to weigh in as the backup for Saturday’s main event featuring Jon Jones defending his share of the heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic. In the lead-up to the fight, much has been made of Aspinall’s attempts to secure a future unification bout with Jones or Miocic, with neither committing to competing again after this weekend much less guaranteeing they will fight Aspinall.
During his visit to “The Big Apple,” Aspinall had a humorous interaction with a fan sympathetic to the cause. Aspinall posted a video to his Instagram Stories showing the fan asking him to sign a rubber duck that just so happened to have Jones’ name on it, a reference to Jones “ducking” the British star.
Watch the scene below (h/t Championship Rounds).
A fan came up to Tom Aspinall in NYC and asked him to sign a rubber duck with Jon Jones name on it
@AspinallMMA #UFC309 #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/NZywjjI5Kb
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) November 14, 2024
“Wild place New York,” Aspinall wrote on the video.
Though Jones and Aspinall are not scheduled to fight, tensions between the two have been at an all-time high. Jones—the greatest fighter in the history of the light heavyweight division and arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter of all time—won a vacant heavyweight title with a dominant submission of Ciryl Gane at UFC 285, but was unable to defend his title in a scheduled bout against Miocic at UFC 295 after suffering a pectoral injury.
In Jones’ absence, Aspinall defeated Sergei Pavlovich to claim an interim title and has already successfully defended it once, while Jones and Miocic have remained focused on their duel that was re-booked for Nov. 16.
Jones has given a number of reasons for not acknowledging Aspinall’s suggestion of a unification bout, most recently saying Aspinall is “such an assh*le that I don’t want to do business with him.”
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