Overview

• Jon Jones has not competed since UFC 309 in November 2024 and has hinted at retirement or pursuing exhibition matches, intensifying the division’s deadlock.
• Interim champion Tom Aspinall has held his belt for more than 500 days and has escalated social media trolling with skits mocking Jones’s Thailand antics.
• UFC president Dana White continues to guarantee that the heavyweight unification fight will take place in 2025 despite the absence of an official date.
• Jones’s reported demand for a $30 million–$50 million payday and his admission that he would be “devastated” by a loss have raised doubts about his willingness to face Aspinall.
• Supporters have amassed over 159,000 signatures on a petition to strip Jones of his title, while a smaller counter-petition advocates for him to remain undisputed champion.