The UFC will explore whether to strip Tom Aspinall of his heavyweight title as the Briton approaches a year since his last fight.
Aspinall, 33, last fought in October 2025, where he suffered a serious eye injury in the first round of his UFC 321 main event with Ciryl Gane, who poked him in both eyes and left him unable to continue.
The bout ended in a no-contest and the heavyweight was later diagnosed with a rare eye condition before undergoing multiple surgeries.
There is still no clear return date for Aspinall and UFC president Dana White has now hinted his title run could experience the same fate as that of Valentina Shevchenko, who vacated her women’s flyweight title earlier this month due to injury problems.
“We’ll definitely be talking about that,” White said when asked if Aspinall should follow suit.
“Valentina doesn’t want to tie up the division and I’m assuming Tom feels the same way.
“I don’t know personally where he is health-wise. We should clear that up soon.”
Aspinall revealed in June that he was back in full training ahead of an anticipated rematch with Gane, who is now the interim heavyweight champion after defeating Alex Pereira at the White House.
He has fought just twice since first claiming gold in November 2023, when he knocked out Sergei Pavlovich for the interim title, with the following 20 months defined by his painstaking wait to battle Jon Jones in a unification bout which never came to fruition.
He was upgraded to undisputed champion when Jones vacated the belt and retired in June 2025, with his ill-fated match with Gane his first and so far only defence of that crown.
