“I think there are two undisputed UFC heavyweight champions right now.”

At UFC 304, Tom Aspinall will become the first interim titleholder to defend his belt in eleven years.

The Briton took advantage of a last-minute opportunity at UFC 295 where he stepped into the co-main event to face Sergei Pavlovich for the belt due to Jon Jones’ injury postponing his fight with Stipe Miocic.

In most cases, Aspinall would now be next in line to face Jones, who returns in a title unification clash, but ‘Bones’ is still looking to reschedule his fight with Miocic for later this year.

As Aspinall looks to avenge his loss to Curtis Blaydes in the July 27 co-main event, some might argue that him defending the interim title is less important than being the undisputed champion.

Jon Anik believes that while there may be two champions in the division, Aspinall’s title defense would be just as important, even though he is the interim titleholder.

Jon Anik Says Tom Aspinall Will Defend Undisputed Title Against Curtis Blaydes

In a recent interview with InsideFighting, UFC commentator Jon Anik gave his thoughts on the current situation in the heavyweight division.

He spoke about how Israel Adesanya viewed his title unification clash with Robert Whittaker as a title defense despite arriving as interim champion.

In a similar vein, Anik believes that Aspinall getting his hand raised in Manchester later this month counts in his mind as a defence of the undisputed Championship title.

He sees that whether the title says “interim” or not, there are currently two tied UFC heavyweight champions.

“Interim titles are a very powerful thing in my mind, even though I may have said in the past that the belt should be silver, I consider that there are currently two undisputed heavyweight champions in the UFC and Tom Aspinall is one of them. He’s defending his undisputed title as far as I’m concerned and for those who have an archaic philosophy, maybe a champion isn’t really the champion, and I think that’s archaic, but if a champion doesn’t defend his belt at least once, then he’s not the champion.

“I mean, Alex Pereira never defended his UFC middleweight title and nobody would argue that he wasn’t the king of the middleweights. But if Tom Aspinall defends the interim title, as far as I’m concerned, that’s an undisputed title defense.”

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