At UFC 304, Tom Aspinall will become the first interim title holder to defend his belt in eleven years.
The Brit made the most out of a late notice opportunity at UFC 295 where he stepped into the co-main event to face Sergei Pavlovich for the belt due to Jon Jones' injury that postponed his fight with Stipe Miocic.
In most circumstances, Aspinall would now be the next in line to face the returning Jones in a title unification clash but "Bones" is still looking to reschedule his fight with Miocic for later this year.
With Aspinall looking to avenge his loss to Curtis Blaydes in the co-main event on July 27, some may argue that him defending the interim title is less significant than being the undisputed champion.
Jon Anik believes that whilst there may be two champions in the division, Aspinall defending the title would be just as significant despite him being the interim titleholder.
Jon Anik Says That Tom Aspinall Will Be Defending The Undisputed Championship Against Curtis Blaydes
In a recent interview with InsideFighting, UFC commentator Jon Anik gave his thoughts on the lay of the land right now in the heavyweight division.
He spoke about how Israel Adesanya considered his title unification clash with Robert Whittaker to count as a title defense despite him coming in as the interim champion.
In the same vein, Anik believes that Aspinall getting his hand raised in Manchester later this month counts in his mind as a title defense of the undisputed championship.
He sees it that whether the title says interim before it or not, there are two equal UFC heavyweight champions right now.
Interim championships are a very powerful thing in my mind even if maybe in the past I've said that the belt should be silver, I consider there to be two undisputed UFC heavyweight champions right now and Tom Aspinall's one of them. He's defending his undisputed title as far as I'm concerned and for those that have the archaic philosophy maybe that a champion is not really the champion, and it's my opinion that it's archaic, but if a champion doesn't defend their belt at least one time, then they are not the champion.
"I mean Alex Pereira never defended his UFC middleweight champion and nobody would dispute that he wasn't the middleweight king. But, if Tom Aspinall defends the interim championship, as far as I'm concerned, that is an undisputed championship title defense.