Tyson Fury Believes Tom Aspinall Is Only Fighter Who Can Beat Jon Jones

Tyson Fury is set to take on former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in a crossover boxing match on Oct. 28 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Fellow Brit and UFC heavyweight Tom Aspinall will be helping “The Gypsy King” as a training partner going into the bout. 

Fury is close to Aspinall and has a high opinion UFC heavyweight contender, who is currently 6-1 in the promotion with all of his wins coming by way of submission or technical knockout in Round 1.

“I’m bringing him in as a sparring partner in preparation for a UFC champion. He’s a good fighter, probably could have made it as a pro boxer,” Fury recently told TNT Sports. “I was quite sure he would have gone on and won a world championship. But he had a derailment with his knee, and that fell out. Now he’s had his comeback trail. I think he can do it. He’s big enough, he’s got the power, he’s a black belt in jiu-jitsu.”

Aspinall recently scored a first-round technical knockout win over Marcin Tybura in July to bounce back from a fight-ending knee injury that also accounts for his lone UFC loss. The 30-year-old has since issued a callout to heavyweight champ Jon Jones, who defends his title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 on Nov. 11. 

While he admits to it being a tough call, Fury believes if anyone can beat “Bones” it is his friend.

“Jon Jones is the Tyson Fury of boxing. People are unable to beat him,” Fury said. “Very tough one. Even though Tom Aspinall’s a mate, Jon Jones is probably considered the greatest of all time in MMA, so I don’t know… It's probably like, can anyone beat Wladimir Klitschko before Tyson Fury beat him? Probably not, but then Tyson Fury beat him. So if anyone can beat Jon Jones, it’ll be Tom Aspinall. Nobody else.”