Tom Aspinall labels Jon Jones ‘Irrelevant’ to the UFC’s heavyweight division
Jon Jones may be the greatest mixed martial artist the sport has ever seen.
‘Bones’ ruled the light heavyweight division for more than a decade, dispatching legend after legend, including Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Vitor Belfort, Chael Sonnen, Alexander Gustafsson, Glover Teixeira, and Daniel Cormier.
But as impressive as Jones’ run at 205 was, his reign as the undisputed heavyweight champion has been the exact opposite. Returning from a three-year-long layoff, Jones captured the vacated crown with a two-minute submission victory over Ciryl Gane at UFC 285.
He has not defended the belt since.
Jones was originally scheduled to defend the title against consensus heavyweight GOAT Stipe Miocic last November, but a pectoral injury forced him to bow out. That promoted the promotion to book an interim title fight between Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich. Aspinall won the bout via a 69-second KO and expected to unify his title with Jones later this year. However, ‘Bones’ and the UFC had other plans.
Instead, Jones will move forward with his fight against Miocic, completely bypassing a unification clash with Aspinall.
Tom Aspinall Respects Jon Jones despite their heavyweight predicament
Even once that bout is in the book, there’s no guarantee that the winner will want to fight Aspinall, prompting the UK star to move on to an interim title fight with Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304. There, Aspinall will become the first fighter in more than a decade to defend an interim belt.
In the time since his title victory and subsequent snub, Aspinall has been critical of Jones and the UFC’s handling of the heavyweight division. Recently, the Salford, England native suggested that Jon Jones is irrelevant to anything he’s doing at the top of the division — with all due respect, of course.
“I honestly think Jon Jones is a legend,” Aspinall said in an interview with TheMACLife. “I respect what he’s done in the Octagon, but right now he’s quite irrelevant to what I’m doing.This is said with a lot of respect; I have nothing against Jon regardless of what he says. It’s all bollocks.“
There are plenty of fight fans who side with Aspinall, believing he should be promoted to undisputed status since Jones is unwilling to face the interim champion, instead opting to fight the 41-year-old Miocic who hasn’t won since his August 2020 trilogy bout with Cormier.
