Tom Aspinall appeared to take a dig at Jon Jones on social media by referencing the UFC legend's controversial doping history.

It is believed a date has been arranged for the two UFC stars to fight this year but nothing has been officially signed yet.

Salford-born star Aspinall has held the interim heavyweight belt since November 2023, and defended the title by avenging his sole UFC loss to Curtis Blaydes last year.

Meanwhile, Jones has held the heavyweight championship for a year-and-a-half, having defended his title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 in November.

Dana White and Co are yet to make an announcement for Aspinall versus Jones but there is plenty of optimism surrounding what would be an enormous heavyweight pay-per-view. 

Until then, any beef between the two must be settled outside of the octagon. And the latest rendition of their war of words came on social media on Sunday, when Aspinall took aim at Jones' alleged history with performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).

The Brit wrote on Instagram: 'The only juice you will catch me on,' above a photo of him holding a glass of mixed-fruit juice.

Jones' cheating allegations began in January 2015, when the American star tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, during an out-of-competition test. 

Although this was not a violation of the UFC's Anti-Doping Policy at the time, Jones sitll had to cough up a $25,000 (£18,850) fine for his transgressions, as well as a brief stint in rehab.

A year-and-a-half later, prior to UFC 200, Jones was pulled from his title-unification bout against Daniel Cormier. 

The U.S Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) found he tested positive for clomiphene and letrozole, substances banned for their capacities as oestrogen-blockers.

Jones received a one-year ban from the sport for gross negligence; his suspension was not as heavy as it would have been had the arbitration panel deemed the violation to be intentional. 

In July 2017, after reclaiming the light-heavyweight title from Daniel Cormier at UFC 214, Jones tested positive for the anabolic steroid turinabol. The result was a 15-month suspension.

Upon his return to the sport in December 2018 to rematch Alexander Gustafsson, Jones again showed trace amounts of turinabol, which was later attributed to residual effects from the 2017 violation.  Jones was cleared to fight Gustafsson as there was no evidence that he had re-administered the banned substance.