Tom Aspinall: Its not Jon Jones; its undisputed UFC heavyweight title he covets

Tom Aspinall probably won’t be fighting Saturday at Madison Square Garden.It’ll take either heavyweight champion Jon Jones or challenger Stipe Miocic to fall out of the fight on Friday or Saturday — these things happen in MMA — but even the Englishman serving as the backup fighter this weekend knows how unlikely it is.That didn’t stop fans at Thursday night’s UFC 309 press conference from roaring with approval at UFC CEO Dana White’s decree: “The winner should absolutely fight Tom.”That reaction, which was followed immediately by a vociferous “Tommy” chant — and capped by Jones playfully telling the masses at The Theater at MSG to “knock it off” — is a testament to how much Aspinall has endeared himself to UFC fans in the 12 months since winning the interim heavyweight title at the Garden, especially in the last week as Jones as sought to justify why he has no interest in a title unification with Aspinall.“I’m very lucky in the fact that a lot of people see what’s happened and what’s going on and they realize it, which is nice,” Aspinall told The Post during a visit to its video studio, hours before the adulation in his name — for which he was not on stage to receive.“I don’t really have to do a whole lot.

I don’t have to come over here and make a big sing and dance about the whole thing because my name’s already getting brought up so much by media and fans and stuff.It’s cool.

It’s nice.”Two things have been made clear since Aspinall (15-3, 15 finishes) knocked out Sergei Pavlovich to win the interim title — created when Jones tore a pectoral muscle last fall less than two weeks before he was originally to face Miocic:If that means going through Jones and testing himself against the legendary light heavyweight, who moved up to heavyweight and won in March 2023 the title Francis Ngannou vacated when he entered free agency, then that’s all right by him.If undisputed status comes through the winner of Jones...