Tom Aspinall Open to Defending Interim Title Against Blaydes-Almeida Winner

If he can’t fight for undisputed gold, Tom Aspinall would prefer to defend his Ultimate Fighting Championship interim heavyweight title instead of sitting on the sidelines.

Aspinall won the title with an emphatic knockout victory over Russian knockout machine Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in November. The matchup was put together at the last minute after Jon Jones was forced out of his scheduled title clash against Stipe Miocic due to an injury.

Despite Aspinall having won interim gold, UFC CEO Dana White has made clear that Miocic will still get the next shot when Jones returns to competition. While Aspinall had initially rallied for Jones to be stripped off the title, the Englishman has now seemingly shifted focus. Aspinall recently expressed interest in defending his interim strap against the winner of the UFC 299 clash between Curtis Blaydes and Jailton Almeida at the Kaseya Center in Miami on March 9.

The idea of facing the Blaydes-Almeida winner was presented to Aspinall on social media. Aspinall suffered his lone Octagon defeat against Blaydes when he injured his knee 15 seconds into the opening round of their UFC Fight Night 208 encounter.

“Winner of Blaydes Almeida sounds good,” Aspinall wrote on X.

Winner of blaydes almeida sounds good https://t.co/Je8R6YtfRI

— Tom Aspinall (@AspinallMMA) December 31, 2023

Blaydes is coming off a first-round knockout loss against Pavlovich at UFC Fight Night 222 this past April. Meanwhile, Almeida hasn’t lost a fight since 2018, a streak that includes six UFC wins. “Malhadinho” is fresh off a lopsided decision win over Derrick Lewis in November, which is his first career win via decision.