Tom Aspinall trolls Jon Jones with announcement tease: ‘I’m fighting for a new belt’

Tom Aspinall can troll with the best of them.

The UFC interim heavyweight champion—and No. 1 in the division in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings—had social media buzzing Monday with an Instagram post declaring, “Heavyweight news. Coming soon.” Immediately, fans began to speculate whether this meant Aspinall would finally be announcing a fight with undisputed champion Jon Jones or perhaps a title defense against a different opponent, but Aspinall quickly shot both possibilities down.

Replying to his post, Aspinall wrote, “UFC announce my fights guys, not me.”

He later joked, “Sorry, guys, I’m fighting for a new belt. Interim of the interim BMF UFC heavyweight title. Living my best life.”

@tomaspinallofficial, Instagram

Aspinall’s comment is a cheeky retort not-so-subtly aimed at Jones. Jones recently responded to fans accusing him of avoiding a fight with Aspinall, by saying, “I’m living my absolute best life. I don’t know if it’s considered ducking when you’re living good. I don’t think it works like that.”

Fans have not taken kindly to Jones’ attitude, calling for the future UFC Hall of Famer to be stripped of his heavyweight title.

The fighters have been involved in a public war of words for much of the past two years now, with Jones and Aspinall both laying claim to the UFC’s heavyweight throne. Following a legendary run at light heavyweight, Jones moved up to heavyweight—shortly after incumbent champion Francis Ngannou departed the promotion—and went on to defeat Ciryl Gane for a vacant heavyweight belt at UFC 285. His first defense was to be against all-time great Stipe Miocic, but an injury forced Jones out of their UFC 295 meeting and they did not meet in the cage until a year later.

With Jones-Miocic off UFC 295, an interim title fight was set up between Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich to bolster that card. Aspinall defeated Pavlovich via knockout in just 69 seconds and it was expected he would face Jones in a unification bout at a later date. With Jones still recovering from injury, Aspinall instead successfully defended the interim belt against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304. Jones later defeated Miocic at UFC 309 to defend his title.

Through it all, Jones has shown little interest in a fight with Aspinall and has repeatedly downplayed the British star’s accomplishments. As of now, it is unclear when or if Jones plans to compete again, and what the plans are for Aspinall should Jones not be part of the equation.