Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall feud: Who’s right and who’s wrong?

Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall don’t see eye to eye.

The 2 UFC heavyweight champions view their 2024 plans very in a different way if the past few days are any indication. On one facet is Jones, the injured titleholder who received his belt in March 2023 with a walloping of Ciryl Gane and now refuses to budge from his objectives of combating Stipe Miocic for his first — and presumably solely — title protection as soon as he has recovered later this 12 months. And on the opposite facet is Aspinall, the interim champ who’s made it his obligation to persuade anybody who will pay attention that he deserves a combat with both Jones or Miocic relatively than sitting out most — if not all — of 2024 whereas the outdated guard finishes their enterprise.

Who’s proper and who’s mistaken? The MMA Preventing group makes their instances. Tell us the place you stand within the feedback and take a look at the podcast model of this debate under.

JON JONES

Damon Martin: Nicely, first off, the UFC must be held accountable for a part of this debacle, as a result of prefer it or not, Tom Aspinall solely holds an interim title as a result of the promotion had a void to fill after Jon Jones suffered an harm that prevented him from going through Stipe Miocic this previous November. Aspinall will inform anyone who will pay attention that he’s one of the best heavyweight within the sport whereas clutching onto the title that he received out of the UFC’s need to advertise a card with two title fights relatively than risking refunds for an occasion at Madison Sq. Backyard.

Jones tearing his pectoral muscle was understandably terrible timing, particularly given how shut he was to the combat with Miocic at UFC 295. When that matchup was first introduced, no person grumbled an excessive amount of, as a result of reality be instructed, there wasn’t a tried and true No. 1 contender — and if that particular person existed, his identify was Sergei Pavlovich.

Pavlovich had six straight wins and was the particular person chosen to function the backup to UFC 295 relatively than Aspinall. Now, all credit score to Aspinall for taking a short-notice alternative and successful the interim title with a knockout of Pavlovich, however he’s definitely not the primary fighter to get a belt just because the UFC had a spot to fill on a pay-per-view. Ciryl Gane did the identical factor below related circumstances when the UFC wanted a headliner and then-champ Francis Ngannou wasn’t obtainable, so magically an interim title was launched.

The identical goes for Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis, Dustin Poirier vs. Max Holloway, Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar, Justin Gaethje vs. Tony Ferguson and the checklist goes on and on. Oh, and let’s not overlook interim champions who simply had these titles taken away with none actual purpose given — Ferguson and Colby Covington know all about that.

Now let’s get again to Jones.

He received the UFC heavyweight title this previous March with a lightning fast win over Gane and instantly his consideration shifted in the direction of a legacy combat in opposition to Miocic. Given all that Jones has completed, he needed the prospect so as to add arguably the best heavyweight in historical past to his résumé.

The harm occurred and now Jones can’t compete once more till the summer season, however the UFC has made it clear that he’ll nonetheless get the matchup with Miocic simply as all the time supposed.

The UFC is aware of that’s a much bigger combat than something involving Aspinall, which is why Dana White has repeatedly doubled down on that matchmaking no matter an interim title looming on the market. If Aspinall desires to pound his fists and throw a match of rage, he ought to goal his ire on the UFC relatively than Jones.

Even if you wish to simply tout Aspinall because the No. 1 contender and overlook all in regards to the interim belt, then ask Belal Muhammad the way it felt sitting behind Covington at UFC 296 or going again even additional when Johny Hendricks needed to wait whereas Nick Diaz received a shot at Georges St-Pierre regardless of coming off a loss to Carlos Condit. Oh, after which there’s St-Pierre leaping forward of Robert Whittaker so he might get a shot at Michael Bisping as middleweight champion after 4 years off and by no means beforehand competing at 185 kilos! Let’s not overlook Bisping defending that very same belt in opposition to Dan Henderson, who was 2-3 in his final 5 fights earlier than getting a title shot.

What’s the frequent denominator in all of those matchups? The UFC knew these fights would get extra individuals enthusiastic about watching and that results in larger pay-per-view gross sales. And say what you’ll about Miocic after three years away and coming off a loss, but it surely’s nonetheless simpler to make a compelling case for him than a few of these examples listed above.

That standards might not sit effectively with some people and I’m positive it upsets Aspinall, however that’s the character of this beast we name MMA. Aspinall can scream to the heavens that he deserves to unify the titles, however “deserves” is a phrase that must be stricken out of your MMA vocabulary as a result of it should solely drive you insane.

Jones isn’t doing something that hasn’t already occurred dozens of occasions earlier than, and finally he solely maintains a lot management as a result of the UFC nonetheless has to grant his want — and that genie is already out of the bottle.

Picture by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC through Getty Pictures

TOM ASPINALL

Shaun Al-Shatti: You understand the funniest factor about all of this? Jon Jones lastly simply gave up and said the quiet part out loud on Tuesday.

“I’ve set myself up fairly effectively in life. I would like Stipe for my résumé, outdoors of that, I would like nothing else from this sport.”

And therein lies the rub: That’s what this matchup is about and that’s what it’s all the time been about. It’s an arrogance combat. Easy and plain. One based mostly neither on benefit nor star energy, however relatively on artificially bolstering the résumé of a fading legend so {that a} decade from now, when little issues like nuance and context are misplaced, new followers will have a look at Wikipedia and hail Jones’ heavyweight reign with reverence as a result of he demolished probably the most embellished huge boys in UFC historical past. That report received’t be aware that Miocic was a 41-year-old retiree who hadn’t fought for 3 years, who was brutally knocked out the final time he competed, and who held no significant relevance to the heavyweight division of 2024.

And you recognize what? That’s completely wonderful! If Jones desires to combat an outdated Miocic so he can name scoreboard a decade down the road to impress individuals who don’t know higher, extra energy to him. He’s invested greater than sufficient time and sweat fairness into this sport to have the ability to manicure his career-end expertise. Jones-Miocic is a wonderfully wonderful five-round, non-title bout to ship two all-timers off into well-deserved retirements. Hell, Tito Ortiz has a win over Chuck Liddell now — the report books don’t care how he received it. However the chemistry of this case modifications when you’re a sitting champion insisting on holding a belt hostage.

As a result of that’s what that is. Jones’ legacy and what’s most essential to him are his personal worries to worry about, however once you’re the custodian of a division and stubbornly digging your heels into quicksand to so clearly handpick a much less imposing challenger whereas there’s already an interim champ on the books, effectively, that’s simply not how any of that is purported to work. The window to drag off this transfer with out holding up a complete weight class was final November. As soon as Jones misplaced the flexibility to name himself an undisputed champion, that window slammed shut — if not for good, at the least till these titles are entire once more.

However Damon’s additionally proper, there have been loads of we-just-need-this-date-filled interim belts all through UFC historical past. So hey, let’s have a look at what occurred with them, lets?

From Gane to Holloway to Poirier to Gaethje, just about each interim champ not caught within the Conor McGregor vortex fought in a unification bout subsequent (apart from Covington, who was supplied the prospect however declined as a consequence of harm, thus resulting in the stripping of his belt). The Bisping/St-Pierre/Whittaker dilemma of 2017 was the one instance that remotely compares to what we’re presently seeing — and I’m sorry, however Stipe Miocic doesn’t possess even 1 / 4 of the drawing energy of Georges St-Pierre (the latter of whom stays a top-four attract MMA historical past). The gulf between a Bisping-GSP pay-per-view and a Bisping-Whittaker pay-per-view in 2017 is orders of magnitude bigger than the hole between a Jones-Miocic and Jones-Aspinall pay-per-view in 2024. These two issues are usually not the identical.

Most different factors Jones continues to throw out are fully irrelevant to the dialogue. Take, for instance, this little ditty after a fan argued that Jones can’t blame Aspinall for being pissed off with what’s an objectively dumb scenario. Let’s shortly undergo it line by line.

I imply, it doesn’t actually work like that.

(It does.)

I used to be a champion once I was 23 years outdated, you may’t present up at age 30 pretending such as you’ve been chasing me your entire life.

(Nothing to do with the dialog.)

I’ve no clue who 90% of his résumé is, in the meantime, I’ve been highlighting UFC occasions my complete profession.

(Jones’ huge wins en path to his first title shot: Stephan Bonnar, Jake O’Brien, Brandon Vera, Vladimir Matyushenko, and Ryan Bader, then steps in as an harm alternative in opposition to a legend. Now let’s do Aspinall: Andrei Arlovski, Serghei Spivac, Alexander Volkov, Marcin Tybura, and Sergei Pavlovich, stepped in as an harm alternative, now can unify in opposition to a legend. Are we actually going act like the previous is demonstrably higher than the latter?)

Ultimately, none of it issues, as a result of clearly the UFC has made up its thoughts to waste a 12 months of its interim champion’s prime to satiate different events. However take one go searching on the court docket of public opinion and it’s clear that if the query right here is which facet is arguing in unhealthy religion, it’s not the man who’s merely calling for the chance he already earned.