Photo: Sportsnet
BY: COLIN BISH, STAFF WRITER
Whenever I write, I try to be as fair and respectable to athletes for the sake of common courtesy. In today’s media climate, people are so quick to harshly criticize athletes for little mistakes. I find this highly unfair.
However, there are certainly extenuating circumstances. Especially if such mistakes are self-inflicted, utterly delusional or dangerous to others.
Jon Jones is one of those circumstances.
The current UFC Heavyweight Champion has had multiple run-ins with the law. From a hit-and-run on a pregnant woman to assaulting his wife in a domestic violence incident to recently threatening to kill a drug tester, Jones has never been able to remedy his behavior.
But I’m not here to harp on his criminal history; while it will always follow him, I want to focus on one of his more recent actions. More specifically, Jones committed a cardinal sin in the world of MMA: “ducking.”
While Jones returns to the octagon from his year-long hiatus this weekend, a little-known, rising star has cemented himself as the best the UFC’s heaviest weight class has to offer.
His name: Tom Aspinall. Over the last three years, Aspinall has built himself as arguably the most complete fighter on the UFC roster, with power expected from a heavyweight combined with the speed of a featherweight and black belt-level jiu jitsu.
Since entering the UFC, Aspinall has gone 8-1, the lone loss via a freak knee injury against Curtis Blaydes. Aspinall would rebound from the loss this past July, knocking out Blaydes in just one minute.
Time has been a key stat throughout Aspinall’s young career. Aspinall holds the record for the shortest average fight time in UFC history at two minutes and two seconds. Keep in mind that he’s recorded a finish in all eight of his wins, become interim heavyweight champ and defended his title while maintaining this speedrun-esque style.
But I know you’re wondering, “What does this have to do with Jon Jones?”
As I mentioned, Aspinall is the current Interim Heavyweight Champion, winning the title by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich in November 2023. Being the interim champ, you would expect the UFC to have Jones fight Aspinall and determine the true champion.
Except that’s not at all what’s happening. Frankly, what’s happening now may go down as one of the greatest delusional hissy-fits in sports history.
Although Aspinall won the interim title in November 2023, Jones was originally scheduled to fight UFC heavyweight legend Stipe Miocic for the Heavyweight title. However, Jones tore his pectoral muscle prior to the event, prompting the UFC to slot in Aspinall and Pavlovich for the interim title.
The next step seemed so simple: Aspinall fights Jones, the winner is the true heavyweight champion. A toddler could connect the dots.
Unfortunately, both Jones and UFC President Dana White have performed hall-of-fame levels of mental gymnastics to rebook the Jones-Miocic fight and leave Aspinall waiting in the dust.
White has done everything to prop up Jones while giving little to no credit to his young heavyweight star, which seems so uncharacteristic for a businessman of White’s pedigree.
But in more recent times, Jones has overtaken White’s delusional mantle by continuing to argue about forgoing his duties as a UFC champion.
In the leadup to his rescheduled bout against Miocic, the media has thrown a lot of questions at Jones regarding his future. He’s mentioned retiring after fighting Miocic, but with Aspinall in the wings, does that change his mind?
It absolutely does not. Longtime combat sports journalist Kevin Iole asked such a question, to which Jones responded:
“I feel like Tom Aspinall is, I don’t want to say a nobody, but he just hasn’t proven anything. He hasn’t done anything.”
Jones is both right and wrong here. Comparing the two’s resumes, Aspinall pales in comparison to the murderers’ row of opponents Jones has faced.
But that’s why Aspinall wants to fight Jones. He’s proven all that he’s able to; not only has Aspinall become interim champ, he’s finished five of the current top 10 heavyweights —all in the first round.
What else can Aspinall do? Wait for Cyril Gane or Alexander Volkov? Aspinall already dismantled Volkov and, considering Gane’s inactivity and lack of a ground game, would be a tough bet to beat Aspinall.
So yes, although in Jones’ eyes Aspinall has not “done anything,” but to the rest of the MMA world, he’s done enough. He’s proven there’s no better heavyweight in the company than himself, why fight anyone else?
And if Jones really thinks Aspinall hasn’t proven anything, then he should give Aspinall the chance to prove something.
Going back to Jones’s early days in 2011, what if the light heavyweight champion at the time, Shogun Rua, turned down fighting Jones because he “hadn’t proven anything”?
Prior to his interim title shot, Aspinall picked up wins over Marcin Tybura and Volkov, both by finish. Before Jones faced Rua, he beat Ryan Bader and Vladimir Matyushenko, also by finish.
By Jones’s logic, he would have had to beat a former champ, like Lyoto Machida or Rampage Jackson, in order to fight Rua. But he didn’t. Why move the goalposts? Because he’s the so-called “greatest of all time?”
Jones is also notorious for his social media outbursts, where he often berates and snaps at fans asking him legitimate questions. A fan on Twitter replied to a Jones tweet, saying he should fight Aspinall now because, if Jones wins and Aspinall becomes an all-time great, it looks great on Jones’s fighting resume.
However, Jones said it’s “way too early” to determine such an outcome and added, “My challenge to him: build a career like mine.”
My challenge to Jon: fight Aspinall and give him the chance to build such a career.
One of Jones’s biggest points in his tirade is that fighting Aspinall doesn’t help his legacy. According to Jones, fighting Miocic or, for some unforsaken reason, Alex Pereira better helps his legacy considering their starpower, skill and notoriety.
But how do those wins better help his legacy?
Miocic’s name on his resume is just eye candy. Yes, Miocic is the greatest heavyweight of all time. But he is not that anymore. He is 42 years old and has not fought since Francis Ngannou knocked him out cold in early 2021.
Pereira is the same: eye candy. Yes, Pereira has been the best fighter this year by a wide margin. But a fight between Jones and Pereira would not be as close as you think. Jones would swiftly take down Pereira and submit him, making it a swimmingly easy fight. And Jones knows that.
Fighting Aspinall, a fighter in his prime that challenges Jones on his biggest strengths, arguably adds more to his legacy. Instead of fighting a past-their-prime great or an overmatched kickboxer, Jones would be testing himself against the best version of a hungry, prime opponent that matches his speed and grappling practically tit-for-tat.
As much as Daniel Cormier wants to say Jones isn’t scared of Aspinall or Michael Bisping warning us not to overlook Miocic, we know what’s true.
Miocic is not the fighter he once was. And although Jones doesn’t look scared, he absolutely sounds like it. Which is not something a “GOAT” would be.
LeBron James never hinted at fearing up-and-coming Steph Curry. Tom Brady never hinted at fearing the Legion of Boom or other young, hungry opponents.
With how Jones is acting, we can see he sounds hesitant, if not scared. Is this really the “GOAT” of MMA? Ducking the rightful challenger to his title?
If Jones really cared about legacy, then he would relinquish the belt and fight Miocic in a legacy bout. Because their fight doesn’t need a title, not at this point in their careers.
Jones won’t relinquish the title. He’ll hold onto it, fight Stipe, retire and ride off into the sunset thinking the fans will accept him as the undisputed GOAT.
I know what’s real: Jones won’t fight Aspinall, which will further damage his legacy. I won’t revel in a win over Miocic, considering he hasn’t won a fight since 2020.
Not only has he cheated, he’s blatantly avoiding his rightful challenger. A challenger that actually poses a threat to Jones, unlike the smaller, mismatched, past-their-prime fighters Jones has fought throughout his career.
My final message to any MMA fans reading: don’t buy into this propaganda. Jones is trying to play you like a fiddle, and you don’t have to fall into the trap. Look deeper than what’s given to you at face value.
Because when you look deeper, you’ll not only see a delusional tirade of perpetual lying, but a career marred by constant disrespect of others, outright cheating and dangerous negligence for anyone but himself: the “GOAT” Jon Jones.
bishcj22@bonaventure.edu
