Tom Aspinall has said he would rather vacate the UFC heavyweight title than defend it against his friend Ante Delija.
Aspinall is on the verge of his first undisputed-title defence, having been elevated from interim champion upon Jon Jones’s retirement this summer.
Jones’s exit from the UFC saw the American stripped of the regular title, which Britain’s Aspinall will defend against Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 321 on 25 October.
And Aspinall’s preparation for that clash with the Frenchman has featured training with Delija, who debuted in the UFC with a first-round knockout of Marcin Tybura in September.
Following that victory over Tybura – a former opponent of Aspinall – Delija immediately entered the heavyweight top 10. Furthermore, he is already booked to fight again on 1 November, against sixth-ranked Waldo Cortes-Acosta.
“So, my friend and training partner has just got to the UFC, he just got his first win, and now he’s in the top 10,” Aspinall said on the ShxtsnGigs Podcast, referring to Delija.
“He just beat a guy in the top 10, so he’s potentially two or three wins away from a title shot.”
Yet Aspinall, when asked whether he would face the 35-year-old Croatian, delivered an emphatic verdict.
“The thing is, if I’d never won a title, [if] I’d never touched gold before, I’d be like: ‘We have to fight,’” said Aspinall, 32. “Because that’s my dream.
“But now I’ve done it, I’d be like: ‘I’ll vacate it, and he can have his time.’ I wouldn’t fight him. No chance, no chance. He’s one of my genuine friends, I would never…
“There’s some stuff to me that’s more important than money and titles. And like I say: I’ve won the title, I’ve done that. I’ve got a few more [title defences] in me before he’s gonna be up there anyway, so…
“I’ve still got more to do, but I can do that ‘more’ in the time that it takes him to [climb the rankings]. When he’s there, I’m happy to [vacate the title].”
Aspinall won the interim title by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich in the first round in November 2023. In a rare move, he then decided to defend the interim belt – amid Jones’s prolonged absence from the cage – and stopped Curtis Blaydes in round one in July 2024.
Aspinall, who then waited for Jones to make a decision on his future, has not competed since. Meanwhile, Gane last fought in December, winning a controversial decision against Alexander Volkov.
Gane, 35, has twice failed to win the undisputed heavyweight title, having lost to Jones via first-round submission in 2023 and Francis Ngannou on points in 2022. Against Ngannou, a former training partner, Gane entered the fight as interim champion.
