The UFC heavyweight division has been a mess for these couple of years. Jon Jones held the title while refusing to fight interim champion Tom Aspinall. Fans wanted the unification bout that never happened. Meanwhile, Aspinall defended his interim belt, a thing that is unheard of. The whole situation frustrated everyone involved. Then Jones suddenly retired over the weekend, ending the drama in the most anticlimactic way possible.<\/p>
But here’s where things get interesting. The UFC decided to announce Aspinall’s promotion to undisputed champion during a press conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. The timing couldn’t have been worse for the British fighter and his team. While Dana White casually dropped the news to reporters, Aspinall was by chance awake at the time in England. His father Andy wasn’t having any of it.<\/p>
Picture finding out your son became world champion through a text message at midnight. That’s exactly what happened to Andy Aspinall, who also coaches his son. Hunter Campbell, the UFC’s chief business officer, sent a simple message saying Dana had announced Tom as the new champ. No ceremony, no fanfare, just a casual text in the middle of the night.<\/p>
Andy didn’t hold back his frustration. He told Campbell he couldn’t think of a worse way to handle such a momentous occasion. The heavyweight championship represents the pinnacle of mixed martial arts achievement. Yet the UFC<\/a> treated it like announcing a card change or venue switch. Andy felt his son deserved better after nearly 600 days as interim champion.<\/p> “I can’t think of a worse way to do it, maybe if they had woken us up to tell us it would’ve been worse. I sent a message back to Hunter saying, ‘I can’t think of a worse way you could have done it. I just think it’s, I don’t know if pathetic is the word. I just feel they didn’t think about it. For me, the heavyweight championship of an organization is quite a big thing and I don’t think Tom deserved to find out at a press conference in the middle of the night.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>