It’s an intriguing time in the Heavyweight division across the mixed martial arts (MMA) landscape.
In Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), two men currently hold titles in the land of giants with Jon Jones as the undisputed kingpin while Tom Aspinall is the interim champion. Despite the latter, Aspinall isn’t expected to be Jones’ first title defense. That will instead go to the former two-time titleholder, Stipe Miocic, who was originally booked to battle “Bones” at UFC 295 this past November 2023.
A torn pectoral muscle forced Jones to withdraw from the bout, which led to Aspinall’s interim clash against Sergei Pavlovich. After the 69-second knockout (watch highlights), Aspinall vented his frustration on numerous occasions plenty regarding missing out on his dream title unification bout. Therefore, Aspinall will likely defend his crown at some point. Familiar with Jones and Miocic in training capacities and being a titleholder himself, Bellator Heavyweight champion, Ryan Bader, believes it’s probably best for the Brit to hold his place in line.
“It’s kind of a tricky situation, right?” Bader told MMA Mania. “You have the interim champ, should be proud of that. It’s not your fault that they made an interim champ, but you want the real thing. You want that undisputed championship. To go out there and win that [interim title], you’re kind of on the shelf for a while, kind of waiting for two other legends in their own right with Stipe and Jones. They have the ability to kind of call the shots a little bit. I think both at this point in their careers, either one could be done after their fight. That’s kind of the deal there. I think they deserve the right to wait for a fight that they want like that.
“In Tom’s shoes, what do you do?” he continued. “I think you wait because you never know. You go out there to fight ... would the interim championship be on the line? What is that? Has that been done? I don’t know. Then you lose and you lose your chance of fighting a Stipe or Jones. You’re believing in yourself and you believe you can beat these guys and everything then you lose that shot.
“If I were in his shoes, it’s frustrating, for sure,” Bader concluded. “I would just train my ass off and kind of wait for that opportunity. At the end of the day, you want to get paid as much as you can. There’s a lot of different variables going on.”
The MMA community will likely just have to wait along with Aspinall and hope either Jones or Miocic do stick around to fight him when the time comes. Under the circumstances, all match ups would make for a big attraction within Heavyweight.
In Bellator and Professional Fighters League (PFL), Bader also gears up for a potentially massive opportunity. Currently set on his champion vs. champion collision against PFL titlist, Renan Ferreira, at “PFL vs. Bellator” next weekend (Sat., Feb. 24, 2024), “Darth” can set himself up as the clear No. 1 option to welcome former UFC Heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, to PFL.
“Win or lose on my part, it’s something there regardless,” Bader said of a fight against Ngannou. “He could fight Renan, yes, but I go out there and beat Renan, there’s really nobody else for him to fight. I’m the Bellator champion, have been the champion for a long time, undefeated at Heavyweight. Even though the titles aren’t on the line, you can walk away saying, ‘Hey, I’m the PFL champion, too.’
“It’s one of those fights that is one of the big fights in the future that you look forward to,” he continued. “Money-wise, legacy-wise, going in there, a lot of people consider him the best Heavyweight in the world. He left [UFC] a champion, and to go in there and defeat him, you’ve pretty much defeated all the bosses available in every organization.”
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