41,000+ Petition to Strip Jon Jones Gets Bizarre Reply from UFC Champ

Over 41,000 fans (and counting) have signed a petition asking the UFC to strip Jon Jones of his title without a Tom Aspinall PPV title unifier.

41,000+ Petition to Strip Jon Jones Gets Bizarre Reply from UFC Champ

Fans ask Jon Jones to be stripped of UFC title, get a quirky reply (Source: X)

There isn’t another fighter with the longevity of UFC 265-pound champ Jon Jones. But that has come up with quite a cost – a logjam in his division. ‘Bones’ has had only two ballot fights in years and left interim champ Tom Aspinall to dry without a PPV title unifier. Jon Jones is holding up the UFC heavyweight division, and fight fans are fed up. They’ve started a petition to demand change.

With Jon Jones having fought only twice in five full years and taking three years for a shift from 205 pounds before that, fans are now fuming. Time and again, he has also weighed in on how he stands to prosper from a legacy retirement. Matter of fact, some 41,000+ fans have signed on at change.org to strip Bones of his hardware. The fighter himself had quite a nonchalant reaction to it all on X (@johnnybones):

The equivalent to pico grams 😂

Some 500 more have signed on after that, and for good reason. It’s only been the frame of half a year since Jones defeated Stipe Miocic during the UFC 309 PPV card. However, it has been six months too many; it’s also the amount he wanted out in camp to decide on a Tom Aspinall unifier, but in vain.

Jones even rang some bells on a recent FaceTime chat with Kamil Gadzhiyev during Thailand’s ALF Reality, hinting he might be ‘done’ for the long haul. If so, why is he holding on to the UFC heavyweight gold is what every MMA fan is thinking.

Meanwhile, the Brit had surpassed an ungodly threshold of inaction without unification news. Aspinall even punctuated a rare defense of his substitute belt and a first-round TKO of Curtis Blaydes last July. It was also revenge for his unfortunate leg injury TKO loss to Blaydes in 2022.

Despite Jones being the consensus best fighter option for many, prime names, analysts, and some fans have even picked Aspinall to get the job done. Thus, making this PPV title fight a go-to skills test for Jones. However, the inaction just does not sit well. One prime name has even urged Jones to put some skin into it or move on!

Michael Bisping is derisive of Jon Jones for holding up Tom Aspinall’s fate

UFC CEO Dana White is officially listed as a prime “Decision Maker” on a petition to remove Jones from holding his very disputable ‘undisputed’ UFC 265-pound strap. White has often made his stance on ‘best to do it’ Jon Jones clear.

Jon Jones urged to make Tom Aspinall fight or move on
Jon Jones urged to make Tom Aspinall fight or move on (Source: X)

With a potential PPV title unification against Tom Aspinall lingering, the Englishman himself has been ready to move on to better things or be crowned as the ‘real’ defending heavyweight. Frustrations around the issue are enormous. Hence, Hall of Famer Michael Bisping has urged Jon Jones to defend his spot or clear up the queue for others to do it.

That’s great for him. That’s all well and good, but if you’re the heavyweight champion of the world, then you have an obligation to the sport, the fans, to the other fighters in the division, …Live your life, and if you are somewhat retired, just be honest and come out and say it… So I think maybe it’s just Jon messing with Tom psychologically because he’s a master of his craft, and he knows what he’s doing. If he’s not, and he has no intention of fighting, and he’s just stringing it out for a while because he wants to hang on to the belt, then that’s appalling to be quite frank.

White has been adamant that this fight is the one to make and will happen. But Jones has hinted either way and said he even made his plans clear to the UFC brass. If he is actually mulling retirement, Bisping finds it in very bad taste that he is stringing along the interim champ for it.

White recently announced the future slate of pay-per-view main events riding into summer. A Jones vs. Tom Aspinall PPV heavyweight title fight is still missing. But the motion is garnering momentum, thus driving up the chance that Team Jackson’s MMA Acoma fighter books his next heavyweight appearance or is stripped again.

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