Dana White has moved from waiting on Tom Aspinall to talking about replacing him.
Next month marks a year since the UFC 321 no contest in Abu Dhabi, where an eye poke from Ciryl Gane ended Aspinall’s first defense in the opening round. He has had multiple surgeries since and is still not cleared. Asked at a press conference in Las Vegas whether Valentina Shevchenko vacating her flyweight title changes the calculation, White did not dismiss it.
Yeah, we’ll definitely be talking about that.
It’s one of those things where Valentina doesn’t want to tie up the division and I’m assuming Tom feels the same way. I don’t know personally where he is health-wise with everything. We should clear that up soon.
That is a shift. White said earlier this month that Aspinall is hurt until the UFC hears differently and that the heavyweight division would keep rolling regardless.
Shevchenko set the precedent with a shorter absence. She vacated the women’s flyweight title this month with shoulder and back injuries, and the UFC has guaranteed her a shot when she recovers. Natalia Silva and Wang Cong fight for the vacant belt at UFC 332 on October 3.
He has never won a fight for the undisputed title, having been elevated from interim champion when Jon Jones retired last summer. His manager Eddie Hearn told Bloody Elbow that the holdup is a commission matter rather than a mindset one, and that Aspinall needs additional testing before he can be cleared.
The division has not waited for him. Gane holds the interim title and wants either Aspinall or an Alex Pereira rematch. Pereira has been campaigning for that rematch publicly, and Josh Hokit has spent the week calling out both while arguing that Hearn is stalling to buy time in contract talks.
