Tom Aspinall Spots ‘Openings’ in Jon Jones’ Game After UFC 309 KO
Tom Aspinall believes he has spotted some weaknesses in Jon Jones’ game after watching his performance against Stipe Miocic this weekend at UFC 309.
For Jon Jones, it must’ve been an incredible weekend. He was away for only about a year this time, but once he started fighting in the cage, it was like he never left. Jones put on a clinic of smothering grappling, slick trips, and beautiful kickboxing. The kicks to the body were landing aplenty, and at one point, Jones even dazed Miocic with a slick combo on the feet. What spelled doom for Miocic was a sinister spinning back-kick from Jones that sent him crumbling to the octagon floor. Some nasty ground-and-pound punches later, and Jones was standing victorious with another title defense on his resume.
Now, the question is whether the UFC and Jones can successfully negotiate a fight between him and Aspinall to unify the titles. Jones is playing coy and tossing out the possibility of retiring or facing the likes of Alex Pereira for a super fight. Dana White, however, has shut that down and now says that after witnessing Jones fight at UFC 309, a battle with Pereira is off the table. White also mentioned that they’d be willing to pay Jones enough to face Aspinall, who is eagerly waiting in the woodworks, ready for blood.
Tom Aspinall speaks on Weaknesses in Jon Jones’ style
“It was, as you American guys say, by design,” Tom Aspinall said on the ESPN MMA post-show (H/T Bloody Elbow) “(The fight) was exactly what I thought, exactly what I thought would happen.”
“To beat Jon Jones, the most important thing that you need is good eyes, good reactions, quick reactions, and in all honestly, Stipe Miocic just didn’t have that at 42 years old,” Tom Aspinall continued. “Of course, I have only seen Jon Jones fighting on TV before; this is the first time that I’ve seen him up close, and I was sitting at arm’s length from the UFC octagon – it is way different watching it on TV than watching it up-close.”
“I am so happy that I got to see an up-close version of what Jon Jones looks like 37 years old and on the back end of his career, I’m very satisfied.”
Tom Aspinall was asked if Jones had any disadvantages compared to him, and he pointed out an easy one: “The speed, just the speed – there is no chance that he can, I don’t want to say too much you know what I mean… Absolutely, I see everything… Whether I can do it in there, you know Jon Jones is arguably the best to ever do it, but I definitely see openings. Whether I can do it myself, I don’t know, but from the outside looking in, I think I can.”
Do you think Tom Aspinall would beat Jon Jones if they fought?
