Watch Tom Aspinall sign ‘Jon Jones rubber duck’ for fan

Tom Aspinall committed to a unique autograph request ahead of UFC 309.

The interim heavyweight champion is in New York the week of the fight as he prepares to weigh in as a backup for Saturday’s main event, where Jon Jones defends his share of the heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic. In the lead-up to the fight, much has been made of Aspinall’s attempt to secure a future unification bout with Jones or Miocic, with neither committing to compete again after this weekend, much less guaranteeing they will fight Aspinall .

During his visit to “The Big Apple”, Aspinall had a humorous interaction with a fan who sympathized with the cause. Aspinall posted a video to his Instagram Stories showing the fan asking him to sign a rubber duck that happened to have Jones’ name on it, a reference to Jones “dogging” the British star.

Watch the scene below (h/t Championship Rounds).

“Wild place New York,” Aspinall captioned the video.

Although Jones and Aspinall are not scheduled to fight, tensions between the two have been at an all-time high. Jones – the greatest fighter in the history of the light heavyweight division and arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter of all time – won a vacant heavyweight title with a dominant submission of Ciryl Gane at UFC 285, but was unable to defend his title in a scheduled fight against Miocic at UFC 295 after suffering a chest injury.

In Jones’ absence, Aspinall defeated Sergei Pavlovich to claim an interim title and has already successfully defended it once, while Jones and Miocic have been focused on their duel, which was rescheduled for November 16.

Jones has given a number of reasons for not recognizing Aspinall’s proposal for a unification bout, most recently saying that Aspinall is “such an ass that I don’t want to do business with him.”