Gane ultimately won the Aspinall sweepstakes, beating out Jailton Almeida and Alexander Volkov to secure the first shot at unseating the Englishman. It will mark the Frenchman’s third shot at becoming undisputed champ and, if things go to plan for the heavyweight king, his last.

Aspinall, meanwhile, has looked near-unstoppable during his supersonic rise to the top, knocking out highly-rated Sergei Pavlovich to win interim gold before avenging his freak injury loss to Curtis Blaydes - his only title defence while he played the waiting game for Jones.

Just when it appeared that the Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall saga had reached its conclusion, things have once again been thrown into doubt. For months, there had been back-and-forth between Aspinall and Jones.