While Stipe Miocic empathizes with Tom Aspinall’s situation, he isn’t taking the blame for holding up the heavyweight division.
Miocic was originally scheduled to challenge Jon Jones for the heavyweight title at UFC 295 in November 2023 before “Bones” pulled out of the event due to an injury. A last-minute interim title fight between Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich was booked to help save the card, and Aspinall knocked out his Russian foe in the opening stanza.
With no timeline in sight for Jones’ return, Aspinall initially called for the champ to be stripped off his title.