Tom Aspinall admits he’s fearful of fight with UFC star Jon Jones: ‘Absolutely I fear him, but it feels me’

Interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall admits he fears Jon Jones, but he says that fuels him.

Aspinall became the interim champ back in November and is hopeful to face Jones in the very near future. However, ‘Bones is focused on getting the Stipe Miocic fight, and after that, he could walk away from the sport.

But, if the bout happens, Tom Aspinall says he does fear Jon Jones but he thinks that would bring the best out of him.

“Well, I’m obviously confident that I could beat Jon Jones, because I want to fight him,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel (via MMAMania). “I’m not making it a secret that I want to fight him. I’ve done everything that I can until this point. I want to prove that I’m the best in the world. I want to fight Jon Jones, obviously. But he doesn’t, so there’s not a lot I can do about that…”

“Do I fear him? Absolutely,” Aspinall added. “I fear all of my opponents. Like, these guys are the best in the world, the absolute best in the world. Absolutely I fear him, but that fuels me.”

Tom Aspinall has spoken about how he was fearful of opponents in the past, as he admitted he was scared of Sergei Pavlovich, but that helped motivate him, which he ended up winning by first-round TKO.

Tom Aspinall Says Curtis Blaydes Could Be His Next Opponent

Although Tom Aspinall has been trying to secure a fight with Jon Jones, it does seem unlikely, and instead, he says he is open to defending his interim title next time out in a rematch against Curtis Blaydes.

“I’d like to fight Curtis Blaydes because when I fought him I got injured and that means that technically he wins and I don’t like that,” Aspinall said. “I want to be the winner, not Curtis Blaydes, so all respect to Curtis and everything. Like him, good guy, professionally I owe him a beating, so that’s what I want to do next.”

Aspinall and Blaydes fought back in 2022 and just 15 seconds into the bout, the Brit tore his knee, which is why he wants to get that fight back.