Despite the fact that he is fighting Stipe Miocic this week, UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones continues to talk and tweet about Tom Aspinall, the current interim heavyweight champion.
Due to ‘Bones,’ one of the greatest fighters of all time, enduring a lengthy layoff after capturing the belt at his new weight class, the interim championship was made to keep the division alive.
As a result, England’s Aspinall beat Sergei Pavlovich and avenged his only UFC loss, which came via freak ACL injury, in a rare interim title defense against Curtis Blaydes.
With devastating boxing and good grappling, a fight between the Brit and the GOAT intrigues any fan of MMA.
However, throughout his injury recovery, Jon Jones has caused an uproar by repeatedly disrespecting and refusing to fight the interim champion, even though that’s what a champ is meant to do with an interim champion.
Though past his prime, Jones is obviously still a highly skilled athlete. Though fans have disrespected his skills, Tom Aspinall never has. That has not stopped Jones from taking offense, though.
In his latest string of tweets, Jones again said that beating Aspinall does nothing for him. This comes as he prepares to fight a 2-year-old Stipe Miocic. Miocic is arguably the heavyweight GOAT, but his last fight was a brutal knockout loss three years ago.
Most of the MMA community has made it clear that Aspinall would be a better win at this stage, as he has beaten five current heavyweight contenders, all by finish. He has also clearly earned it. That does not appear to matter to Jones, who claims he will fight UFC light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira – and his noted lack of wrestling experience – after Stipe.
Jon Jones’ body of work in the sport cannot be denied, but refusing to fight the obvious title challenger even after this old man bout with Miocic is disrespectful to the very notion of sports and competition.
It cannot be said that he is scared of Tom Aspinall, but Jon Jones certainly seems to be choosy with the risk/reward ratio in fights lately.
So it should come as no surprise to see fan-made memes across social media calling him a duck, as in someone who ducks – avoids – a hard fight.
Tom Aspinall is out here playing Duck Hunt.
We all want Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall, right?#UFC pic.twitter.com/hlt3GuPuDt
— ricky~dooby (@rick_doobs) August 21, 2024
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