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Tom Aspinall recently revealed how Alex Pereira's loss against Magomed Ankalaev brought him one step closer to his goal. However, Aspinall also mentioned that he wasn't celebrating Pereira's loss in any way.
Aspinall, the reigning interim heavyweight champ, has been chasing an undisputed title fight against Jon Jones ever since he claimed the title at UFC 295. However, Jones has been avoiding Aspinall's callouts for more than a year now. In his defense, 'Bones' rated Aspinall as an undeserving rival on account of his inferior resume.
However, Jones exhibited interest in a fight against Pereira instead of Aspinall multiple times on account of the former's two-division champion status. But 'Poatan's' loss against Ankalaev at UFC 313 took away his light heavyweight title, making his fight against Jones an irrelevant one.
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Aspinall appeared in a YouTube video on One On One | MMA where he mentioned how Pereira's loss facilitates the materialization of his target to fight Jones. The British heavyweight highlighted that Pereira's loss leaves Jones with only one viable option, fighting him for the undisputed heavyweight gold. Aspinall said:
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"I’m an Alex Pereira fan. I love his style, I love the run he has been on. I really respect where he’s come from and everything like that. But it [Pereira’s loss] couldn’t have happened in a better time for me, personally.
"There’s nowhere to go for Johnny [Jon Jones]. He either has to fight me or retire now. Everyone knows that he has already been avoiding me. So literally, there isn’t another fight for Jon at the moment."
Check out Aspinall's comments below (23:07):
Alex Pereira's rival shook hands with Tom Aspinall and dissed Jon Jones after his victory at UFC 313
Jon Jones's neglectful attitude towards fighting Tom Aspinall indicates that he might have supported Alex Pereira to defeat Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313. Pereira's victory would have helped make Jones's desired fight against Pereira even more relevant. However, Ankalaev dethroned Pereira via a unanimous decision at UFC 313, making Jones's hopes fall flat.
After his victory, Ankalaev fired a shot at Jones with an X update for seemingly supporting his opponent in the UFC 313 main event. 'Big Ank' also relayed Aspinall's callout in it, writing:
"Jonny steroid machine was very disappointed, I beat Alex. [Now] please fight big Tom @AspinallMMA. Stop running."
