Aspinall Announces Official Backup for 309

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The Ulitmate Fighting Championship (UFC) Interim Heavyweight champion is headed to ā€œThe Big Appleā€ next month.

UFC Heavyweight champion Jon Jones vs. former Heavyweight kingpin Stipe Miocic is only a month away (Sat., Nov. 16, 2024) as the two legends will clash at UFC 309 inside Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Today (Mon., Oct. 14, 2024), Tom Aspinall, who holds the UFC Interim Heavyweight champion, revealed to Ariel Helwani that he is officially the backup and will step in if either Jones or Miocic canā€™t fight.

ā€œYes, it is official,ā€ Aspinall said. ā€œI mean, Dana [White] announced it a while ago now, but I didnā€™t actually hear anything from the UFC. But we actually spoke, and everything is going good and we came to an agreement about it.ā€

Aspinall also revealed that UFC has big plans for him but would not let the cat out of the bag yet.

ā€œWe know whatā€™s happening going forward. We got plans,ā€ Aspinall said. ā€œWe have future fight plans. Everything is right there. Itā€™s going to be a good couple of years, let me tell ya. Big plans. Big, massive plansā€¦[Jones or Miocic is next] Thatā€™s what is happening. We got other options, too, in case one guy wants to retire and one wants to continue, or both guys want to retire. Whatever. We have all the bases covered.ā€

It definitely seems like the UFC brass have a big plan for their British knockout machine, which is great to hear, as he is everything a promotion wants in a champion.

The only problem is he has beaten everyone in the Heavyweight Top 5, minus Ciryl Gane.

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Jones pulls out. Aspinhall kills Stipe. They strip Jones and he retires or waits awhile and comes back to fight Gane again or Curtis Blaydes.

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It shocks me how many people think Jon would lose to Tom.

I hate Jon as a human, but Iā€™ve come to terms with the fact that weā€™ll never get to see him get the savage late career beatings weā€™ve all wanted him to have to take

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Its not that he would lose, its again the continuation of history that we are living. How great is he? Why not let us the world watch how great he is and just go down in history without any stupid questions. This is what most all fighters do.

Thatā€™s all we are saying.

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He is past proving his greatness IMO. The Stipe fight is meaningless except for the fact that people have created and inhabited an alternate dimension where Stipe is the best heavyweight ever.

Jonā€™s already hands down the best lhw ever, and he has an easy chance to beat the guy many people think is the best heavyweight ever. Heā€™s got money and his years of proving his greatness are long over. Heā€™s in the twilight of his career where heā€™s picking fun fights. And as much as I hate him, heā€™s earned it.

The real questions about his legacy will always be around his failed tests and usada special treatment, along with his many character flaws. To me, he isnā€™t answering stupid questions about fighting Aspinall because he thinks theyā€™re stupid and he truly doesnā€™t give a fuck what fans think

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image

Killin It Lately

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Iā€™m just going along with the joke. I think he would have a better chance against Aspnallā€™s style than Stipeā€™s. He loses to Francis though.

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I think he beats all of them honestly.

I know MMA math doesnā€™t work, but gane as a common opponent and thinking about how their styles would collide doesnā€™t make me think Francis would be tough for him. I could be wrong

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he passed one test in the USADA era
failed all the rest and/or loopholed them

pretty hilarious if you put it in that perspective

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Heā€™d rather fight Aspinall than Curtis Blaydes imo. Blaydes only struggles against huge punchers, jones probably has the least power in the division.

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I think Jones takes down all of these heavyweights and submits them or pounds them out. Gordon Ryan said Jon is the most difficult opponent heā€™s ever rolled with. Most heavyweights arenā€™t very good on the ground and Jon has the wrestling to take them down at will.

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Jon has fought one HW
Only one

He has had an entire career to fight the big boys and he has only fought one

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Jones is by far best HWā€¦ But its HW even if youā€™re twice as good as the next guy you got 10-20% chance of getting knocked out in there on average. Much harder for him to mitigate that at HW than any other weight class. There is a reason why no one has more than 3x defenses in UFC history.

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Didnā€™t Ngannou have blown out knees or torn ACLS against Game though?

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