Luke Thomas: Jon Jones refuses to fight Tom Aspinall to unify the UFC heavyweight titles, electing instead to fight a 42-year-old Stipe Miocic who hasn't fought in almost 4 years and hasn't won in almost 5 years. Is it safe to say Jones is ducking Aspinall?
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#lukethomas #jonjones #tomaspinall
Jon beating Stipe for legacy is just like Jake Paul beating Mike Tyson for legacy. I will be streaming this fight. I refuse to pay the UFC for this shit.
lol, man, I wouldn't watch the UFC at all if I had to support them.
I think Stipe is being massively overlooked. A D1 Wrestler and Golden Gloves champ who's bigger than Jones... We could see an upset
I'm so happy that fans are revolting for this abomination. Dana should be fired for trying to "force" Stipe vs. Jon Jones onto the fans, when Tom Aspinall was given an official Interim belt by the UFC.
@@MNToThat or we could see a 42 year old that’s too slow to compete and hasn’t fought in 3 years… but we know what we’re going to see with a prime Aspinall.
@@chadpower3228 It's HW. Speed would matter more if Jones was a knockout artist but he isn't. I hate Jones more than most. I'm also an Aspinall fan and want that fight too but the Stipe bout was signed before Aspinall was near contendership. It's an unfortunate scenario for Tom but it is what it is. He's not whinging about it. Neither should we. The UFC will start banging the Aspinall drum if Jones wins, they don't want him retiring with the belt.
Jon is actively campaigning against Tom, which is worse than just ducking him, in my opinion.
The UFC brass are a bunch of cowards for letting this drag on so long
This is a rare case where I think Dana should be forced to step down as matchmaker, and the financial people who run the UFC need to overturn his decision here. Tom Aspinall is the more profitable, better long term investment, and it only hurts the business focusing on Jon. You have to remember that Jon has ruined many events, by failing for PEDS's, before and after events, and also just being very difficult and stubborn with negotiations, having legal problems, and a lot of drama in his personal life. And this whole situation only exists because of Francis Ngannou, who really angered Dana and Hunter by leaving on sour terms as the best UFC heavyweight in history. The UFC's solution to "spite" Francis Ngannou was to promote Jon Jones, to try to erase the memory of Francis Ngannou. But you can never erase Francis Ngannou, he was the most gifted knockout striker in UFC history, and only Tom Aspinall can come close to that, if they will let him fight. Tom Aspinall, not Jon Jones, is the correct long term business strategy.
Jones vs Miocic is bound to be a certified Bellator classic
Rematch in BKFC in a years time lmao
He's definitely ducking. He ducked Francis for the longest time, and now he is ducking Aspinall.
😂😂😂
he also ducked Pavlovich
He ducking. These old guys are just holding up the division, which has been unstable since Francis left.
14:30. In every calculation, this is the wrong approach. The best approach would be to put Aspinall against Jon Jones, to pass all the status and legacy of Jon onto Tom Aspinall, who will be around for another 8 years in his prime, making the UFC a tremendous amount of money, maybe close to $1 billion in profit, by the end of his career. The UFC has a $1 billion dollar athlete in Tom Aspinall, which only works if he's allowed to fight Jon and steal Jon's status as the best fighter ever.
Who has Jon Ducked in his entire career?
Ever
@starseeddeluxe or maybe the UFC is protecting Tom because they believe Jones beats him then retires. Then you're left with a great heavyweight in Tom but one you could never call the GOAT and there goes that 1 bil athlete
If Jon beats tom his career will still miss beating the "allegedly" the GOAT heavyweight. There will always be the next big thing who is supposed to beat Jon. Jon's career is at a place where he can decide who he wants to fight in his "last fight"
The answer is yes.
Yes but I don’t blame him… only reason why people wanna see him fight Aspinal is to see him finally take a L… Jon is denying these people that…. He’s gonna beat the “Best heavyweight of all time” and then retire.
@@AndreXMichael Don't blame him but blame the UFC. If it's still a sport, Jones needs to be stripped. The champ needs to fight the interim champ/the deserving contender.
He should have vacated. He doesn't need the belt to fight stipe in a legacy fight.
By the same logic, Tom doesn't need the Jon fight for his own legacy. Tom fans seriously can't take what they want to dish out, hypocrites.
@m.j.e.5245 Aspinall wants to be undisputed champ, Jones just happens to be holding the other belt, so that's the fight he wants. He wants to unify the belts, the way it should be.
@m.j.e.5245 he wants the person who has the belt. It just happens to be jon jones, which makes it a huge fight.
The intern can wait.... the double champ does what the fook he wants
money , ppv points
If Tom wins his next fight, he needs to take a different approach on the microphone. He’s been too deferential to Jones. Tom has to say Jones is too cowardly to take the fight, because he knows Tom is the best HW in the world.
good idea
I know he'll never do it, but if Tom started calling Jon out for the domestic violence incident, that might actually piss off Jon enough to change his plans
Agreed. He should make a heel turn. Go full scorched earth, say Jon is wearing a fake belt. That he’s old and slipping and he knows it, and therefore ducking the guy he knows will beat him. Etc.
@@owenlichtenberg7932the worst that could happen is he gets the fight and loses 🤷 the only people that would have a negative opinion of Tom would be the same people who are dismissive of him now already lol
Or Tom could defend his interim belt multiple times & end up with more title defenses that the lineal championship; henceforth elevating the value of Tom's belt over the lineal belt. Also making jones look progressively worse with each interim title defense.
Jon is no more a champion that Tom. Jon didn’t beat a champion to get his belt. He’s just an interim champion as well. Now he’s hiding from someone that is an actual threat to fight a 42 year old fireman that’s not won a fight for nearly 5 years. Dana and the UFC have really fucked this up by letting Jon call the shots. Meanwhile boxing is making the fights the UFC uses to make while mocking boxing for not making the best fight the best
He's way more of a champion than Tom in pretty much every way lol. Just compare their title stats and you'll see how silly this matchup looks.
Jones has one fight at heavyweight. His light heavyweight run is irrelevant.
@@m.j.e.5245 He's referring to being a champion at heavyweight in case you're slow
Delete
Jon Jones is champion because he fought and won the vacant heavyweight belt so no he’s not “just an interim champion as well” you can make the point he should have fought Tom for the vacant belt or he should fight Tom now instead of Stipe. Which I would agree with for legacy and it’s a more interesting fight than Stipe…But this revisionist history is goofy and unnecessary
Why did Jon come back just so he could duck all challenges
Tom is the heavyweight champ. Jon isn't, he's only had one fight at heavyweight
😂😂
Here’s something I haven’t heard anyone mention so far… I think it’s highly likely Jones retires after an easy matchup against Stipe and the only reason he’s brought up Alex’s name is because he needs a potential replacement for Stipe should Stipe get injured and he absolutely does not want Aspinall to slide in for Stipe as he’s knows Aspinall is a nightmare matchup for him while Alex would be a similar outcome to the Gane fight. So he’s being tactical and forward planning. He’s not just ducking Aspinall, this is 4D chess level ducking of Aspinall!
Oooh smart!!!
I know that Jones is just looking for a retirement bout, & would rather fight Stipe since they never got to fight while they were in their prime. However, holding onto the belt while avoiding a fight with the clear #1 Contender, devalues the belt.
There's the same age difference between Jon and stipe as there is between jon and tom, and jon is acting like tom needs to pick on someone his own age lol
LMFAO you're right. He really thought he was saying something with that. He's a hypocrite.
What Jon Jones is a hypocrite?! Who would have thought that after all his honesty and good behavior
Thank you Luke for calling out the ufc glazers "Derr theres no gimmick belts & the best fight the best unlike boxing" 😂😂😂
The UFC should be stripping uncontested belts that sit for more than a year. It's obvious that it's no longer the 'fight game', it's WWE-lite.
They’ve reversed roles with boxing. Pretty funny actually
Fighters are supposed to be removed from rankings if they don't fight for over a year. Conor, Chandler, Jones, Stipe, etc all get to stay because of popularity and notoriety. They're handicapping their active fighters
Conor hasn't been in the rankings for over a year. Chandler has been kept out by the UFC for a year and it's not like he wasn't very active before that...stipe is a special case with his legacy and the fact he would have fought if not for Jones injury and Jon is the champion coming off an injury..in what world would they not only strip him and drop him from the rankings...I get what you're saying but in practice it's a very stupid argument to make
I’ve accepted that they’re gonna make the stipe fight. But Jones has to either commit to fighting Tom or vacate the belt immediately afterwards. No Poatan shit, no 6 month negotiation, shit or get off the pot as soon as the stipe fight is done
That's unfairly overlooking Stipe though. Jones cnat downplay the guy he's already having to do all the fight promo for. And that's coming from someone who hates Jones! I fully expect UFC to push the Aspinall fight if both win their next fight. They have to play nice with Jones for now. They will squash the Alex fight publically once they see how the Stipe fight goes.
Jones vs Aspinall is the mma version of Canelo vs Benavidez
No it's gonna be mma version of Floyd vs Canelo
@@jeremiahjoseph2325 I meant because of the ducking
This was my biggest problem with the antitrust suit settling, the ufc can't say it acts in the betterment of fighters when it's literally refusing to give it's interim champ and unification fight
Jon pointing at his and Stipe’s age tells you everything. He doesn’t feel confident with his chances against Tom Aspinall and wants to go out on a W, not his shield. It’d be fine if he vacated the belt and stopped calling himself the heavyweight champ. Not a good look for the “GOAT”.
The fact that Jon said Tom hasn’t beat as many former champs than Alex 😂 I’m a big Alex fan but there’s only 1 HW champ active and he won’t fight Tom either. Jon is playing a word game with his ducking and it’s weird. Jones is a weirdo
Tom is not active either. What do you mean
@@vuyanimajola5685Tom fights twice a year, and that's only because the ufc struggle to find opponents for him..... nobody wants to sign that dotted line. Still, since 2020 he's fought 8 times. Let's compare that to jon shall we? Fought once since 2020 🤦
@@vuyanimajola5685That's a ridiculous cope
I hope the entire arena boo the hell out of Jon Jones vs Stipe match or scream Aspinall's name the entire match.
Jon Jones is such an unpleasant character in my opinion. He is so fake and obviously a sociopath, and a stupid one at that. Absolutely can't hide his intentions and feelings about anything and I am sure he doesn't want the fight with Aspinall. It is a big risk and he knows it, why not just fight old old Stipe for more money and call it quits unbeaten, makes sense if you think about it. And he won't let go of the belt unless the ufc makes him, he doesn't give a fuck about the holding up the division or anything..
Can you give the UFC fans one legit reason why Jon should give af?😂
Like I said makes sense that he doesn’t. He just rubs me the wrong way with his severe insincerity.
Yes. Yes tf he is. If Jon said he wanted the only actual legitimate challenge at Heavyweight. He'd be calling for Aspinall
UFC is turning into boxing. Multiple belts per division with no intention of champions fighting each other.
I won't pay a dime to watch Jones vs Stipe.
We have an *Interim Heavyweight Champion* because Stipe got KTFO and wants to sit out for almost 4 years. *MIKE TYSON has been more active than Stipe!*
It’s hilarious that ever since Dana said they don’t make gimmick fights after losing out in the Ngannou negotiations, almost every second big fight they make is a gimmick fight.
Dana would call the shot of his life bringing ngannou’s ass back in the UFC to fight Tom. Two scary dudes with vicious knockout power. Who cares about Jones!?
Aspinall is too dangerous for Jon at this stage imo. He wants nothing of that. It's Stipe and then call it a day.
In every sense of the word he is. He’s the interim champ, he’s the number 1 contender for the belt. If he said to Dana “hey I’ll fight Tom” they’d make it in a heart beat.
Name one fighter Jones has fought that is as big, skilled and in there primes like Tom Aspinall ?
The only one who comes close is Dom Reyes, but he's not as big as Tom.
Gustaffson
@@Nawalta Agree.
Jon's fiancé 💀
Gane
Could you imagine is Stipe manages to beat Jones....and doesn't retire? A Jones-Miocic trilogy.....years of the heavyweight division having a weird "shadow championship" - a real possibility that Aspinall could just have to defend an Interim title for like 3 years.
I never thought about what happens if Stipe wins until Luke mentioned it... That is a horrifying thought and it feels like the heavyweight division has been moving in quicksand for the last- I don't know six years maybe? Jon is to blame, but I think the UFC is to blame more. Like Luke said they have to offer him the fight they have to actually follow the rules, but they're not.
Jones does not want any part of Aspinall, he knows he'd get destroyed and taint his Legacy.
His legacy is set. A loss in a division he had never fought until 15 years into his career isn’t going to change his status. Like him or not. It pisses me off he doesn’t fight more often, but who knows whose fault that really is.
PEDs have affected his legacy way more than a loss would.
The days of the ufc making the best fighting the best is over. Its strictly a popularity contest now. Itll be 10x worse when black rock takes over next year. The ufc is as we knew it has been ending, and is about over...
If Tom Aspinal Win Against Blaydes in his rematch, he should technically be the HW champion of the world and the division.
Blaydes was never a champ, so that makes zero sense.
@Journeyman2585 if Blaydes wins, his only becomes the inter champion . It is not the same thing for Aspinal, he'll would be defending his intern title, so technically, if he won, he would've already defended more than Jones in the division, so he should be considered the HW Champion of the division.
@@Calderon_ That's not how it works bro.
@@Journeyman2585 DOESNT fkin matter the original champs dont transfer the belt they are all gone so boo hoo
@@SirPraiseSun it does matter. I think Tom will smoke Jon, but you don't get to be undisputed champ by beating someone who doesn't hold the belt. This is a stupid argument.
I’m sure the UFC has discussed with Jones about fighting Aspinall. He’s the Interim champ for crying out loud. He most likely said no cuz he knows he’s losing that fight. Jones is running scared. He should just retire if he’s not going to give the fans what they want.
Jones body language says it all , he isn’t acknowledging Tom as if he ignores him he magically will go away , but he knows the fight is on the tracks and moving towards him like a train.
It’s crazy that the overwhelming fan sentiment is that we want Jon v tom and yet this is still being shoved down our throats.
No intérim belt should ever be defended.
Jon’s whole career in the ufc was beating guys that were over the hill. The guys that weren’t arguably beat him, but somehow lost decisions
Wait. Which guys beat him?? I'm confused
@@cojan83Hes just over exaggerating and talking crap . Jon only lost to reyes
Technically, if Tom wins his next he has a better claim to being the true heavyweight champion. Right now the belts are basically equivalent. Neither of them beat an actual champion to win their belts, but Tom won his from the new HW boogeyman and will have at least defended his against a top 5 contenders - that will be a more legitimate title than the one Jones holds in my opinion.
Never thought I'd say that Jon Jones is a coward.
it makes no sense. If Jon beats Aspinall, then nothing changes. He can have the Stipe/Alex fights and retire. Nothing changes. If Jon loses. For the UFC it is a money machine. You have an immediate star combined with his regional (UK) audience. You have a rematch opportunity and even a potential trilogy, which will be huge fights everyone will want to see. Jon's goat status could be on the line. Its a huge money maker. Whether Jon or Aspinall wins the trilogy is irrelevant. 2-3 fights with them is much bigger then the other Jon fights. If Aspinall comes out the losing side of the trilogy he will still have grown in name recognition and having a single win over Jon would still be big for him. The winner of this trilogy can go on and fight Stipe, Alex etc for even more and bigger money fights. Let alone if Aspinall wins he has at minimum another 5 years in the sport. From the UFC perspective it makes no sense not to make the Aspinall/Jon fight. Its win/win. From Jon's perspective i can understand ducking
Fans need to unite and spread the word to not order this PPV and not attend this event.
I love your content man but i don't think you are correct in this case. Jones at this point has enough leverage to say who he wants to fight and is painfully going out of his way to convince whoever reads his essays that Stipe is the only interesting fight, that Alex is what we really want, that Aspinall is a nobody that we won't care about in a year...he's ducking him in every possible way shy of literally leaving the building when Tom turns up. Jones doesn't need to be HW champ, he has enough of a resume anyway. Take his belt away or force the fight. When was the last time an active interim champ wasn't about to face the champ who is returning?
Plot Twist: Aspinall fights Stipe next. Jon odd man out.
Jones talking about a guy potentially not being around in the next three years: where is HE gonna be after that Stipe fight? Is he gonna stick around?
It's amazing how unserious a company the UFC has become and how little they care about that perception. Between this and Conor supposedly getting a title shot if he beats Chandler, how can anyone with a functioning brain take the UFC seriously as a world class professional sports org.
My point of view is that if there is an interim champion is out there with a belt, the undisputed belt is worth a little less. If both fighters are healthy, they should be fighting 100% of the time, as that is how the belt structure works. Why doesn’t Jones bring legitimacy to his belt and beat Aspinall if he thinks he can? Because he's not sure he'll win.
I don't know why he still has the belt. The UFC has stripped him before plenty of times and it's what they made all the LHW champs do who were getting injured around the same time as Jones. If they had just put their foot down, things could be so much clearer right now.
Luke, this content is really awesome. I appreciate the editing, and the unfiltered opinions. Really super valid points, and it's awesome when you share your real thoughts in an unfiltered way.
The UFC is almost entirely about making money and Jones vs Poatan is a bigger ppv fight than Jones vs Aspinall , but so long as Aspinall remains available by not being injured and he doesn't lose beforehand then even the UFC will give Jones an ultimatum after the Stipe fight that Jones must defend against Aspinall or give up the belt , anything else makes the UFC look like a sham of a sporting organisation , maybe if Stipe beats Jones which is very unlikely then maybe they'd do a rematch before giving Aspinall a crack at the " undisputed " title
This is such bullshit. Strip Jones. If he want's to fight Stipe, that's one fight. If he wants to go get the belt from the OBVIOUS HW champion, that's a different fight.
Of course he is but let's be honest this version of Jones is nothing like the guy from 10 years ago so if / when Tom beat him it's not exactly the same thing is it?
Yes.
Having followed the UFC since 2007, I've watched the Heavyweight Division stagnate on several occasions. Jon shouldn't have a choice. It's pretty simple, in my view.
Notice how Jon was talking about fighting Alex or Tom, but when everyone started talking about him fighting Tom he started talking about Stipe again. If everyone would have demanded Alex instead of Tom, he totally would have pivoted.
It is surprising that the UFC has not offered Jones the Aspinal fight. Doesn’t a promotion benefit if the new generation HW champion, who is (seemingly) here to stay defeats the all time 🐐 and a current HW undisputed champion, especially when we know that the current champion Jon Jones will most likely retire win or lose to Aspinal? Why would the UFC not want Aspinal to get all the shine from Jones by defeating him and thus becoming a huge star in his own right? I always thought that when you have a champion who is a star on the brink of leaving the promotion for whatever reason, they try to give that champion the most difficult matchup so that they can promote the new champion as the one who defeated the goat, if that’s what happens of course? Strange that the ufc hasn’t even hinted at offering Aspinal to Jones, but I do understand where Jon Jones is coming from similarly to all of a sudden starting to call out Poatan, which is laughable because he thinks he has everyone fooled where it couldn’t be more apparent that he would sooner call out Amanda Nunes out of retirement than fight the one guy who poses a legitimate threat to his legacy already tarnished beyond repair…
It’s true that officially Jon never lost a fight and the DQ he was given against Matt Hamel was definitely laughable… however, I am yet to find a credible MMA entity that doesn’t think Jon absolutely lost his fight to Reyes 3 rounds to 2… there is absolutely no way Jones vs Reyes can be scored anything but 48-47 for Dominic. Additionally, Jones vs Cormier 2 was overturned to a No Contest; yet, Jones was stripped of the belt and Cormier got it back from Dana and technically defended it against Volkan, meaning he remained a champ after fighting Jones a second time, which in my opinion should have been another DQ on Jones’ record instead of NC. Cormier later said that the reason he shamefully kept the belt behind his back because he thought he lost that second fight so in his mind he was fighting Volkan for a vacant title and the only reason he accepted the belt from Dana is PPV points… So my point is as follows: I don’t think we should look at Jon’s record and conclude that since the only loss on his record was a questionable DQ, he is really an undefeated pound for pound 🐐 because if we are to look over the DQ loss on his record, we should at least consider the fact that he did not beat Reyes but got his hand raised and popping for ped’s after second bout with Cormier, the fact that Jones was (rightfully) stripped of the belt and it went back to Cormier clearly indicates that Jones should have been retroactively DQ’d instead of getting a NC, hence avoiding another loss on his record. So in my opinion he should have two losses on his record a UD LOSS to Dominic Reyes and a DQ LOSS to Cormier for popping dirty after their second fight..
Why is Jones trying to beat up an old fireman?
Yes. They aren’t offering a fight because he already told Dana he’s not fighting anyone that can wrestle. Dana luuuuvs Jon unconditionally. And given the latest revelations, makes one wonder. Jon gets whatever he wants. USADA is even gone. I wish he had self confidence to match his physical gifts.
For the record, I have zero interest in Jon Jones vs Stipe. I know everyone has been waiting for my thoughts
Yes
Hang in there till the end guys just for the satisfaction of him shutting the f*** up
Learned absolutely zero things again
I understand Jon's logic for wanting to fight Stipe and get out. There's always going to be a new contender. The problem is, there's an interim champ. It makes it weird.
I'm a Jones hater but it's just an awkward series of events. I don't think Jones is afraid to fight Tom. His ego is wild. Also, Usada are gone so most fighters have an extra year or two on their careers. 36 isn't old for HW The UFC will publically call for the Aspinall fight the second this Jones Stipe fight ends. They don't want the champ retiring with the belt.
Sorry, there is a massive cover up from analysts and UFC. We are not hearing a true assessment of Aspinall current skills and what a dangerous match up he is. UFCSTATLEADER tables have Aspinall with most first positions in their top ten tables of any fighter over last 30 years from 4050 fighters with 1, 1, 1, 1, 4 & 4 rankings from 32 % and skill based tables. Second = in the tables are GSP, Miller & Oliveira with 3 first positions each mostly in easy to keep legacy and cumulative tables. Most fights, most wins, most sub attempts?!, most fight night bonuses, most top position time, most control time, most wins, most submissions, most takedowns. Each of these is cumulative - end of long successful career. None is a measure of win:loss ratio or of danger. Compare these with Tom's first positions in tables below. All except least bottom position time (which is partly a measure of the number of fights as above), are measures of % or ratio. Have just one bad round where you are outstruck and held down for 2 mins and you lose all of these 1sts and possibly are removed from all top ten tables. Tom has best striking differential of 4050 fighters at 4.95. Tom has shortest average fight time of 4050 fighters at 2:10 Tom has least bottom position time of 4050 fighters Tom has least bottom position % of 4050 fighters Tom has 4th most strikes per minute of 4050 fighters Tom has 4th most knockdowns per 15 minutes out of 4050 fighters So lets compare with Pereira first. Pereira has 8 fights with one loss by KO in the UFC just like Aspinall. He has however 2 decisions one of which is a split decision while Aspinall only has finishes, all but one within the first round. Pereira's fans point out his elite striking, his sig strike accuracy being the 4th best ever at 63%. He only appears in this top ten table - still a great achievement. However, the threshold for being in this table is 350 strikes. Tom has only needed 134 strikes in his 7 wins and one loss - he is finishing opponents with around 16 strikes average - if this were a table he would be first. Tom's sig strike accuracy is 67% so he would be second of all time after Alistair Overeem if he met the 350 threshold. Alex has fairly poor striking differential - he gets hit a lot. It is around 1.34. Alex has fair takedown defence % at 70% but hasn't fought grapplers. Aspinall has 100% takedown defence and has fought grapplers. Aspinall and Pereira both have 100% takedown accuracy. Pereira has only attempted one takedown. Alex has one punch power but can't always finish with it. His power cube record is now exceeded by Eddie Hall one of Tom's training partners. Maybe a comparison with Jon Jones. Jon really does appear in the top ten tables, especially legacy tables. He has 1, 2, 3, 3, 9 in the tables. The most important achievement is his 1st Most Title fight defences. He also has 3rd longest win streak and 9th most wins of 4050 fighters. At the level he fights at, this is an outstanding achievement. In skills he is second for takedown defence at 95% and 3rd for Bottom Position % behind Aspinall. The threshold for takedown defence is 20 attempts so Aspinall on 100% doesn't qualify. Tom knocks people out to quickly to ever achieve this. Jon has 47% of his wins by decision and two of these by split. Apart from Gustaffson and Reyes, fighters have been at a height and reach disadvantage and this is where his defensive striking and grappling have been invaluable. Decisions looked close with Gustaffson 1 and Reyes fights and Jon had a split decision win over Santos. All but one fighter in Jon's career were older than him. Jon has also had Jackson Wink looking after him from age 19 to recently and they have covered for his chaotic life, helped him get fights and clean out the division, supported him through drugs cheating, dodging fights and prepping him from early on. Tom Aspinall however has had to create his own gym and training with his father - a BJJ black belt and do a DIY job on preparation, knowledge and promotion and has really struggled to get fights because before UFC most fighters ducked him. What about other great hw fighters. Pavlovich is the second greatest striker with 1, 2, 3, 7. He has most knockdowns per 15 mins, 2nd shortest average fight time, 3rd most strikes per minute, 7th best striking differential. All these out of 4050 fighters. Like Aspinall and Pereira he has 8 fights in the UFC with two losses - one to Overeem and one to Aspinall. All his fights have been finishes in the first round. Ngannou was rated as the man that Jones ducked. He only appears in one statleader table. He is 8= for KO/TKO wins. Apart from his explosive highlight knockouts he doesn't appear in other top tens. He had 14 fights in the UFC, losing to Stipe and Derek Lewis by decisions. He also took Gane to decision victory but won 11 by knockout. The biggest fight is Aspinall v Jones. Aspinall with the best skill/danger stats of all 4050 fighters on the ufc database. Jones with the best legacy achievements of all time on the UFC database.
Thank you! Great comment, good stuff.
It's weird for a 30 year old to wait for a 36 year old but not for a 36 year old to wait for a 42 year old where there's arguably more of a physiological difference despite the same age gap
What we’re dealing with are the effects of Dana making a stupid deal years ago with Jon that he could fight Stipe when he moved up to heavyweight because they knew Jon can beat Stipe
Jj is DUCKING his way into retirement and its annoying. Strip him.
Jones holding the belt, just do the right thing and fight the interim champ. you know, like how it’s been done for many years in the past?! zesty man is ducking
I think it says a lot that Jon will mention every other option by name but never Tom. Not saying he’s scared of Tom but he definitely recognises that out of Stipe, Tom and Pereira, Tom is the only one who poses a genuine threat to him. Don’t think he’d ever admit that though.
Why is everyone defending Jon Jones. You, Bisping and DC all saying he is not ducking him. He's talking about "legacy" but we know part of it is now ducking Aspinall.
By November, Stipe will celebrate his 64th birthday
Another one! Keep up the good work.
The UFC is the problem here. It should have been Jon v Francis…. Them letting Frank walk over money is the core of the issue and not paying Jon more to fight em. That caused the log jam and is why we are here right now. Tom doesn’t deserve the belt neither does Jon noone beat the man.
Great point
This is the truth. I 2nd that.
Joshua secretly the lineal UFC Heavyweight champ
Sorry to say Jon Francis. Francis was not afraid to get beat or he would not have tried to box to boxing Champions without any boxing experience. Jon did not want to fight Francis with bad knees he sure doesn't want Aspinwal whi has good knees.
Absolutely on point here Luke. Totally agree with you.
Jon beating Stipe at this point in Stipe's career for his "accolades" is like Tyson beating Larry Holmes off of a 21 month layoff where he was an 8-1 favorite. Sure you beat the name "Larry Holmes", but you didn't beat Larry Holmes the boxer. Unless Jon is fully conceding that he isn't able to fight at his best anymore and an old Stipe is more appropriate for him? But surely he wouldn't be saying that.
YES!
I don't really see how people put any blame on Jones, it is the UFC that is responsible for everything that has brought us here. Jones really doesn't owe Aspinal anything, he has nothing to do with Jon at this point. A. Failed Negotiations with Francis B slow-tracking the entire Jones move up C. not truly building a new Heavy weight division after losing everyone who mattered there, to age or contract dispute. D. Setting up and sticking to the Stiipe fight. C. Setting up an interim title between fighters who have no real legacy or notoriety to matter. They have no qualms leaving young fighters like that to wait and stew,... If this were a proper division we wouldn't even need to discuss this issue. Aspinal would still be on the come up... People are making a stink over who Jon actually commits to fight. That's really the bottom line of the problem people are putting on Jon. Which means nothing really either way at the moment. I just find it really odd no one sees the real problem at HW and why Jones is the only key to righting it. Aspinal needs this Jones fight, that belt would be worthless without him. He has no names of note on his resume, a stripped belt would have no names or weight attached to it, nor would there be any defenses of note in the near future to add weight to that reign. The definition of a paper champ... This is what all of Jones' trolling is all about IMO and likely why he won't commit anything to Tom. I wouldn't be surprised if it's due to his statements early on in this fiasco (Tom did kind of go Diva over it all). When someone is injured like that, they're not fighting anyone for quite a while, no need to put on a big show over it. You can't put any of that on Jon though, that's a UFC issue... He doesn't owe to anyone his name on their W bracket.
We are all infuriated with JJ for choosing to fight a 42 year old, who hasn't been active for years. He's choosing an easier payday. Nobody wants to see this. It's a waste of an MSG main event. I hope it bombs and Jon's participation revenue suffers. With JJ-Stipe, the MSG card was severely overpriced last year, and had 1000s of tix available, just weeks out. When he dropped out, the price dropped, but we're still slow to sell.
Thanks for the video, Luke! 👊
If it walks like a 🦆 quake's like a 🦆, It must be a .........
I really hope that fans decide to boycott and not buy the PPV for the Stipe vs Jones card and vote with their wallet. This whole predicament is sn absolute farce.
The UFC are not asking Jones to fight Aspinall, as they already know Jones does not want such a challenging opponent. I would certainly class this as Jones ducking Tom Aspinall, as Jones is mentioning other names, some have never even fought at HW.
Jon beating Stipe is only a good accolade if it is paired with Aspinall (and Poatan) wins. Then it carries the weight because he didn't duck anyone. Otherwise we nitpick it to pieces. But if he beats both of them and Alex, then who can say anything to him? He has to fight them all.
PPV points should be a non-issue: just give him points without the belt. I guess the problem is that they then can't market the fight as a championship fight so they'll have fewer buys.
The downsides of money over merit. The UFC won’t force Jon.
I disagree. The UFC hasnt offered Tom Aspinall because Jones told them he wanted Stipe instead. That's still ducking. They arent going to write up a contract they know he'll turn down.
I can understand the Stipe fight, contracts were made and the fighters want to honour that. If Aspinal wins in Manchester he has to be the next inline for the belt. If Pereira gets the chance before him. We could end up with a situation where he defends his interim belt 3 times. Which would be a joke.
UFC trying to give Jon Jones a layup fight with Stipe before he retires. Its a joke. Tom Aspinall destroys both of them!
Yes. Next question please.
I thought it said docking (don't look that up!)
hahahahaha
I also think the UFC wants out of the Jon Jones business, so they just want to give him the Stipe fight so he can ride off into retirement
I’m a bit of a casual but I think this is a stain on Jon’s legacy. After all the bs.. the one thing you could say about him is he fought all comers. Whoever the UFC gave him, he fought and beat. Cleaned out the division, went up and beat that guy, too. But now… Dana doesn’t like what GSP did… Jones is doing the same thing, isn’t he? Except he didn’t beat the guy who had the belt. Fighting Aspinall is actually the real legacy fight. The warrior.. the true dog.. he’d take that fight, he’d win, and he’d walk. And that would be awesome.
Wrong. Jones already has two losses not including his disqualification. Just because some judges are terrible at their job doesn’t mean we don’t know that Gustafson and Reyes beat him