“I’ve bit**ed, cried, said good stuff, bad stuff about him…” Interim champ Tom Aspinall accuses Jon Jones of ducking title unification fight

Tom Aspinall details that rejection and fear fuels him, despite G.O.A.T Jon Jones being dismissive of his callouts.

“I’ve bit**ed, cried, said good stuff, bad stuff about him…” Interim champ Tom Aspinall accuses Jon Jones of ducking title unification fight

Tom Aspinall sess no way out with Jon Jones snubbing his calls (Source: IMAGO/Instagram)

Interim heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall has a bone to pick, with ‘Bones’. The moniker might have referred to Jon Jones‘ tall but little frame while playing high school basketball, but, the 27-1-0 out of Jackson’s MMA Acoma Gym is now a heavyweight luminary in MMA history. Even away from participation, Jones remains the fight to make. Consequently, Aspinall has been wanting to make that fight, but in vain.

The 14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC Briton fought Sergei Pavlovich when Jones was out, due to a pectoral tear last year. After winning his title gold, Tom Aspinall’s callouts blew past Jones, who underwent a subsequent elbow surgery and was unavailable for title contention. Even later, he went on a lengthy rebuke, calling out Aspinall for his unproven heavyweight legacy.

YouTube video
Do I fear him? Absolutely, I fear all of my opponents. Like, these guys are the best in the world, the absolute best in the world...I want to prove that I’m the best in the world...I’m obviously confident that I could beat Jon Jones because I want to fight him...I’m not making it a secret that I want to fight him, but I’ve done everything that I can until this point...I've bit**ed about him, I've cried about him, I've said good stuff, bad stuff to him...I've asked him about fighting to his face...
Tom Aspinall via his Official YouTube channel (@tomaspinallofficial)

While Aspinall initially faced a lot of heat for his overdriven aspirations for a title unifier, things changed over time. Many within the MMA community gradually sided with him, over consensus 265lbs G.O.A.T Jon Jones. Even Dana White is now open to granting him his chance for a title unification or defending his interim title in the meantime. White said as much to Adam Catterall, for UFC on TNT Sports.

In the same segment, White hinted at UFC returning to London somewhere in 2024, with Manchester hosting it in late July. While Aspinall could not confirm inner workings, he did hint at active negotiations for the same. With both Jones and Stipe Miocic refusing a hash, Aspinall would be looking at other places for a prospective challenger.

The implications of a title unifier between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall; were there other such unifications so far?

The stakes are through the roof when there’s a champ vs. champ clashdown. Attributing to absence, injury, contractual blocks, and so on, a fighter can deviate from a trajectory. Only to return later and fight for their “only” claim to the gold. After all, what use is the first place if there were two?

Will Jon Jones ever allow a heavyweight title unification?
Will Jon Jones ever allow a heavyweight title unification? (Source: IMAGO/Twitter)

Heavyweight Jon Jones finds himself in a similar situation with interim Tom Aspinall. Without a unification, Aspinall’s title is mere promotional hardware for showcasing and keeping the ebb of legacy. Jones knows of the deep-seeding implications that a unification match always has. Here are some prime examples of those.

We go as far back as the early 2000s when Tito Ortiz refused to defend his 205lbs belt against Chuck Liddell. Falling into a mandatory bracket, a 10-win streak Liddell went up against underdog Randy Couture but lost. Ortiz returned and faced Couture for the Undisputed Light Heavyweight title at UFC 44, to “unify” the status of a champion.

Strikeforce MMA‘s Nick Diaz and Georges St-Pierre’s Champ vs. Champ affair for UFC 137 failed With Diaz failing to attend pre-fight scrums, Carlos Condit subbed in, much like Aspinall. Shift to an interim fight at UFC 143. he won. A revert St-Pierre faced the interim champ at UFC 154.

Interim challenger Justin Gaethje was the final blow to a 5X canceled bout between Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Consequently, this was also the end of Nurmagomedov’s illustrious tenure. There’s also the epic affair of Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor

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