Sonnen expresses concern over Aspinall “being used” in Hearn, White feud

Former UFC fighter Chael Sonnen has expressed concern over Tom Aspinall “being used” in a feud between Eddie Hearn and Dana White.

Aspinall has recently signed a deal with Hearn’s newly launched talent agency. The deal is published as a commercial and advisory agreement rather than a promotional one, as the fighter remains contracted to the UFC.

However, some believe the deal is part of Eddie’s strategy, wanting to get back at White for signing Conor Benn.

Meanwhile, Aspinall has also been in a feud with UFC for a while now, which started when they somewhat threw him under the bus following his double eye poke injury at the hands of Ciryl Gane.

In a recent interview, Sonnen shared his thoughts on what he believes is happening with Aspinall, Hearn and White.

“If I took quotes from one year ago Tom — I mean, Tom was saying things like, ‘I am the active champion. I don’t care about Jon Jones, I just care about the belt… take the belt off of him, give it to me,’” Sonnen said during an interview on Helen Yee’s YouTube channel.

“We all supported that because Tom was completely correct. Now one year later, Tom is the one who appears to be holding out. Tom is the one to be saying, ‘I gotta sit down and relook at these contracts.’”

Sonnen then added that Tom Aspinall was “being used” in a rivalry between Eddie Hearn and Dana White.

“I don’t blame this on Tom,” he continued. “But I do fear that Tom is being used. He’s being used in a public fight between Eddie and Dana.

“I don’t want Tom used like that. If you want to make money, fight. That’s the commodity, that’s how we make money, that’s how we’ve always done it. To sit out and make demands, that’s just not the Tom Aspinall we dealt with a year ago.”