Jones was originally booked to fight Stipe in July 2023. Aspinall wasn’t even on the radar at this point. He had just come off the injury loss to Blaydes. Why would Jon go out of his way to cancel his already booked match with Stipe to gift Aspinall an opportunity to fight him just because he called him out. It doesn’t work that way. MMA fans are such over dramatic goobers. Jon knows this and doesn’t play into allowing the hardcore fans/media dictate his career path. Im an Aspinall fan but he’s just run into bad timing. At the time when Jones went up to heavyweight, the Gane fight made more sense than Aspinall. If Aspinall would have been champ then I guarantee Jones would have fought him. I find it interesting people mention Jones cherry picking strikers. I believe if things went to the mat with Aspinal, Jones would have the advantage. Aspinall is fast, he blitzes with his chin up in the air. He’s got a chin but he gets clipped in every fight. He hasn’t fought any of the top strikers at HW. Gane might possibly pick him apart on the feet. Gane rarely gets hit.
I think we see Gane vs Aspinall in the near future and Gane cancels out any chance of us seeing Aspinall vs Jones.
Jons own rise to stardom was heavily based on him fighting big names from the previous generation at a point where most arguably werent at their best anymore.
I dont think anyone would have much of an issue with him fighting Stipe or whatever if he didnt have the belt. But hes been artificially engineered into a position where he was able to snatch the belt, has then sat at home with it for 18 months and is now about to defend it against a 42 year old who hasnt won a fight in over 4 years, while basically openly ducking the interim champ who is on a roll.
He’s beaten 3 generations of fighters over 14 years and is the current undefeated heavyweight champion. (Never been knocked down)
Won the title from the current ranked number 2 contender (34 year old Cyrl Gane) by finishing him with ease in the first round.
Aspinall is on a 3 fight win streak.
Great arguments guys
This is the kind of disingenous insane shit that Jon defenders resort to.
Toms only “loss” in the UFC came from him injuring himself when throwing a kick. He then rematched the guy he “lost” to and stopped him in the first round.
Outside of that fight hes 8-0 in the UFC, 7 of those coming in the first round, he has rd1 wins over the current no3,4,5,7 and 9 in the division.
Jon has fought twice in the last 5 years, arguably got a gift decision in one of them, and has had one fight ever at HW. He is a paper champion.
Let’s take a little trip down memory lane. While Jones was cleaning out a division of fighters from his generation, Aspinall was fighting Andre Arlovski. I like Tom Aspinall. He’s an exciting fighter. Let’s chill out though. He probably doesn’t even beat a past his prime Jones.
“While BJ Penn was UFC champ Islam was a child”
Wtf relevance does it have to the current situation?
“I dont have to defend my belt against the no1 contender because I beat Shogun in 2011”
Jones is the champ and Aspinall is currently fighting. Jones beat a top 3 ranked heavyweight less than a year ago. That’s the relevance.
Have we learned nothing from Conor Mcgreagor and Darren Til? It’s a fun ride while it lasts watching a cocky guy with an accent throw caution to the wind. They all have gigantic heads and a tendency to throw punches with their chin straight up in the air. Stylistically he isn’t going to hold the title long. The only fighter from overseas to tuck his chin and move away from punches was Bisping. Go back and rewatch Tom’s last few fights against guys with average striking. Hes playing Russian Roulette. Jones and Gane aren’t going to stand in front of him like Blaydes and the Russians.
lol @ not cancel an already booked fight from a year and half ago bc Jon got injured. Dana literally puts new opponents in for fighters whose opponents drop out the same week, sometimes the day of the fight. Aspinall would have railroaded Stipe and Jon by now if Jon wasn’t scared/being protected.
Explain why bozo wants to fight Pereira next and not Tom.
Pereira is a champion, has talked about going up to heavyweight to challenge for the title, has a more impressive resume than Tom Aspinal, bigger draw, more money, Pereira is one of the biggest stars in the ufc currently. It would be considered a super fight.
At MW and LHW?
Aspinall has way better resume at HW (the division Jon is fighting in) than Jon or Pereira.
Jon wants that fight because Pereira is a grappling noob, and easier stylistic matchup. Bitch boy is scared. Lump it homie.
To think that these high level fighters are scared of each other is so out of touch. The media and fans are regular insecure humans who would never compete in high level mma. Jon Jones isn’t scared of anyone. Gane beats anyone on Aspinalls resume.
He’s scared to lose and is attempting to protect his legacy. Clearly. Obviously. To pretty much everyone but you.
I really don’t think Jones hypes up Aspinall the way the fans do. Champions respect prestige over this new guy beat Curtis Blaydes and sergei. Interim title means nothing. Derick Lewis beat Curtis Blaydes and Allister overeem beat Sergei. These arent wins over elite guys. Heavyweight is a shitty division. Periera is a two division champion. Jones is a two division champion. It’s a way bigger fight between two elite fighters. This would be like if GSP and Anderson had fought. Tom Aspinall could be the real deal but if Jones only has two fights left and isn’t planning on going on a title run. It makes more sense to do the biggest money fight.
Not if hes on his tippie toes!
I was at that fight confusedly yelling “what the fuck is he doing?!?!”
It was closer to 2 years ago now.
Lets be real about Gane too, great technical striker and athlete but lacks punching power and has a clear weaknesses to grappling. Theres a reason there was no difficulty at all getting Jon to fight him, and that hes willing to fight Poatan too, but didnt want Ngannou and now doesnt want Tom either.
What ARE they gonna do? based on what we’ve seen so far Gane cant bust a grape or defend a takedown. Jon is probably going to have difficulty taking Tom down and is almost certainly fucked in any kind of prolonged stand up situation. Pavlovich was arguably a more dangerous fight than both of them.
He has almost cleared the division out already. Literally all thats left outside of Jon is pillow fisted one dimensional striker Gane and pillow fisted one dimensional slightly undersized grappler Jailton. Not saying he couldnt lose those fights but stylistically neither of them are likely to make him pay for defensive lapses by knocking him out.
Then two sentences later
The dude is beating fucking Khalil Rountree, Jamahal Hill and Sean Strickland lol. So those are elite wins? do you think Sean Strickland would beat Sergei Pavlovich? 
Jones has earned the right to cherry pick at this stage in his career. Nobody better than him has ever stepped in the octagon. Islam and khabib will never fight past their primes and know why jones is doing what he’s doing.
And yet hes the only one of the 4 prospects to come along in the last few years who has somehow completely bypassed fighting the wrestler Blaydes. And now they’re letting him rematch Volkov instead of giving him grappler Jailton. He never fought Pav either when Pav was on his reign of terror.
Hes a protected fighter.
And Jones lost the fights to Gus, Reyes, and Santos.