"The heavyweight title is booked" - UFC insider delivers hot take about Tom Aspinall's first title defense

Tom Aspinall is supposedly locked into his first title defense now that he has been upgraded to the official UFC heavyweight champion, per a former two-division Chael Sonnen.

Sonnen touched upon this subject recently on his YouTube channel with the prior champ Jon Jones choosing to retire from MMA. He said:

"I'm going to give a take you're not going to get anywhere else. The heavyweight title is booked. Ciryl [Gane] is not fighting Tom. Why has no heavyweight spoken up and tried to fight our undisputed champion, Tom Aspinall?"

"I mean the writing on the wall has been on this... As much as we expect that [Aspinall vs. Gane], I don't think that's the fight. I don't think they're fighting. In fact, I think Jailton Almeida has that fight," he added.

Check out Chael Sonnen's thoughts on Tom Aspinall below (0:01):

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Tom Aspinall's timeline for next fight outlined by Dana White

Tom Aspinall has been on the sidelines for almost a year now following his first-round destruction of Curtis Blaydes in their rematch at UFC 304 last July. The bout saw Aspinall defending his interim strap.

The 32-year-old is presumably chomping at the bit to get back to competing, and fans are excited to see Aspinall again. This is the reason why Dana White has given the MMA community some clarity on his next opponent.

In a statement made on pre-International Fight Week, White quipped [via MMA Weekly]:

"Tom will be there all next week. So, we'll sit down with him, see what he's thinking, what he wants to do. He's been great through this whole thing and literally said 'I'll fight whoever you guys tell me to fight I'm ready to go.' I'm looking forward to the Tom Aspinall era."

White also intimated that he's shooting for a Tom Aspinall fight to take place in November at Madison Square Garden in New York City.