Tom Aspinall gets 100% real on record-setting UFC interim champion reign: "That is not something that I wanted"

Tom Aspinall has recently weighed in on becoming the UFC interim champion for the longest duration. The Englishman became the interim UFC heavyweight champion after beating Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in November 2023.

A few weeks back, Aspinall broke the former record for the longest interim title reign held by former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao, who reigned for 534 days.

During a recent video uploaded on his YouTube channel, Aspinall was queried by Demetrious Johnson to share his feelings on becoming the longest-reigning interim UFC champion. In response, the Brit showed his discontent, saying:

"Yeah, that is bullsh*t, isn't it? That is not something that I wanted. I’m not proud of that one. No, I’m not that proud of that, to be honest. The interim title is nice. But the longest-reigning one? I obviously wanted to contend for the undisputed in the time that I’ve been interim.”

Check out Tom Aspinall's comments (via @ChampRDS on X) below:

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Chael Sonnen expresses criticism of Tom Aspinall's stance on not defending the interim title

Tom Aspinall's strong stance regarding a potential title unification fight against Jon Jones is one of the major reasons he has held the interim championship for so long. However, since the UFC heavyweight champion remains hesitant to face Aspinall, Chael Sonnen believes the Brit should move on.

In a recent video posted on his YouTube channel, the UFC Hall of Famer called for Aspinall to be stripped of the title if he does not actively defend it.

"Tom is the longest-reigning interim heavyweight champion in history. I would like for Tom to be elevated to undisputed champion if, in fact, Jon is refusing to fight him. Tom has said, ‘I will not defend the interim belt’. Tom has gone further to say, ‘I will not fight for any belt that isn’t undisputed’, now it doesn’t have to be Jon. Tom is not saying, ‘It’s Jon Jones or bust. Give me Jon Jones or else’.

He added:

"He’s saying, ‘I am the interim champion, I am willing to compete, which if the undisputed champion is not willing to do, I then get those duties’. If Tom is saying, ‘I’m not going to defend my belt, we take the belt back’. I’m ok with Tom getting the undisputed belt, by the way, this isn’t like against Tom... The moment he says, ‘I’m not going to defend it’, he should not be the interim champion.”

Check out Chael Sonnen's comments below: