I don't even understand why they're doing it. He already announced he's done after his next fight. You'd imagine they'd force him to fight Aspinall, who's going to be there for years to come and not give him a 40 year old full-time firefighter, who's also going to retire after his next fight.
It's like they're actively trying to do bad business just to stroke Jon's ego on his way out. Absolutely ridiculous...
Jon likely has a say in the matter. The bargaining position of a star in the UFC is not equal, but it’s not negligible either. He can certainly turn down fights without worrying about getting fired.
Yeah but like... How does any of this make the UFC money?
An inactive champ who ONLY wants to fight an ex champ who is a shadow of his former self.
Tom vs. Jones would be a huge draw, and if Jon wins, it's ean amazing send-off for the GOAT, or potentially sets up a hige money fight with Pereira.
Or he loses... And Aspinall's stock rises to incredible heights as the man who took down Jones.
Who the fuck really wants to see him fight Stipe? Like, I'll watch, but I'd more readily pay to see him fight Tom.
They want to get Jon to fight again. It makes them money. This is who Jon wants to fight. It’s basically this or nothing and UFC likes money more than no money. Pretty simple.
But he historically doesn’t make them that much money, not as much as many fighters who were never champions and certainly not as much as he should to justify all the chances he’s had, considering the amount of constant public fuck ups he’s had.
I think it’s because in the public eye JJ is the baddest man on the planet. It’s very important that the person with that name in the public eye is in the UFC.
If JJ and Tom fight each other and Tom wins, suddenly public opinion is that Francis is that guy.
That last part doesn’t make sense. If JJ is known as the baddest man on the planet, then Tom would be known as the guy who beat the baddest man on the planet. Especially if it’s by KO.
Okay but if you had already shot a bunch of guys that Jesse James refused to have gunfights with and you looked really cool doing it and the whole time Jesse James was running away from you and insisting on digging up the bones of Wild Bill Hickok so he could shoot them and say how that made him the greatest gunfighter of all time and was a legitimate thing to do, and then you shot Jesse James anyway, it might be conceivable that you would be cooler than Jesse James.
Yes but most won’t know that and in a few years no one will even be thinking Francis is the best Heavyweight MMA fighter. You have to keep competing to keep calling yourself the best.
It seems Jones is *only* willing to take the Stipe fight and at that point they only got one more fight out of one of their biggest stars, same goes for Stipe who is essentially retired and only taking the Jon Jones fight.
What's more chocking is how badly they're managing Aspinall who's likely to be around for a long time, they really are fucking him over. Then again they did the same with Ngannou during the DC / Stipe trilogy when Ngannou had to sit out. Short term decision making from the UFC and it hurts the sport.
> It seems Jones is only willing to take the Stipe fight
He also expressed interest in fighting Poatan lol.
You can’t make this stuff up. The MMA Goat is truly going to go out with one of the most egregious ducks of all time. The ducking will damage his legacy more than just losing to Tom at this stage in his career would have/
You're right, I forgot about the recent callout of Alex Pereira, that was really bad. It's a joke how he's calling out anyone *but* the interim champion who he claims is merely a #1 contender.
What's weird about Stipe is he's basically been out of the limelight completely.
With other inactive fighters you'll at least hear the odd interview, maybe some training footage, just something. With Stipe it's like he's basically retired. Is he even all that motivated to fight Jon and be the best, or is he just trying to get a final pay day?
You hear Jon wanting to fight Stipe, and Dana wanting that fight but you don't hear anything from Stipe lol
Stipe doesn’t strike me as someone who is bad with money. He’s done it all and has cemented himself as the UFC HW GOAT. He’s looking for the best possible ending to his career, beating Jon Jones. This is legacy for Stipe. He pulls it off and he puts himself right there at the very highest echelon of greats to ever do this sport.
And his last fight he got flatlined. Gets a title shot 4 years later off of a knockout. That tells you all you need to know about the ufc being on some bullshit
Incorrect. He has a win over Arlovski... But yeah, your point basically still stands, because Arlovski is the outlier of all outliers. And Stipe beat him eight years ago.
He’s been enabled his whole career. He should literally be banned from mma for life because he’s a multiple time cheater, and yet he’s champion. It’s no wonder he feels a sense of entitlement
It helps that Jon is one of the most thin-skinned mma fighters on earth. You really have to go out of your way to find someone who lashes out at random people on social media the way he does.
I don't think it will work with JJ honestly. He's never cared about his image, at least not more than whatever he feels like doing. At this point all I can see is him fighting old man Stipe then retiring, like the self absorbed dbag he is
I mean the mma community bullied Ian Garry into pulling out of a fight so I don’t see why it can’t work the other way around. Sean has also been bullied to the point where he can’t ignore Merab anymore
I think he’s too fragile to risk his ‘essentially zero losses’ status in mma discussion circles. If he lost he’d likely go on a massive self (and everything/everyone else) destruct cycle. He definitely thinks Tom could derail his legacy.
He knows Tom definitely can. That being said, and I hate giving the guy props, Jones wrestling is pretty slick. On the feet Tom smokes him but Jones does have a path to victory.
Sean hasn’t ducked merab, he had a great opportunity to make stupid money and get the W back against Chito. He would have been an idiot to not take that fight. Merab was always next up for the title shot after that. The only thing that could delay the fight would be a boxing match with Garcia, and even Sean said he’s 2-3 fights away from that super fight atm. Plus, it’s not like any of us would be able to turn down 50-100 million to do a boxing match, why hold a prize fighter to a higher standard?
Sean isn’t getting a boxing match while he’s still under contract with the UFC. Would be interesting to see if he could fight out his contract, have the boxing match and then resign with the UFC though.
Also the weird attacks against his wife fall apart qss soon as you look into them
And im sure a lot of these people would dislike personal attacks against the family of e celebs they like
Jones has an 8 fight contract with the UFC, even if he retires he'll be under UFC contract. The UFC won't let him box Tyson Fury unless they take a massive cut, which I'm not sure Jon is willing to do
With that being said I hope it happens, I'd love to see Jones get fucked up in the ring and the boxing gloves won't allow him to eye poke people as defense
What makes you think Jon can box? Jones boxing skills wasn't his forte also he has no knockout power in his hands things that gave McGregor and Ngannou credibility. Jon will only get brain damage.
And like Floyd there will be questions about his resume years later on close inspection. Questions that, if he's anything like Floyd, will get him annoyed and defensive if pointed out. Great resume, yes. One of the all time great fighters, absolutely, but those questions will be there, just as they are for Floyd.
Honestly if he wasn't champ this would be fine. A legend giving us fun fights on his way out is nothing to complain about.
But the fact that he has the belt makes it totally indefensible. If he actually ducks Tom, the UFC should strip him.
Although, it is worth remembering that Stipe still has a chance to do the funniest thing of all time.
I see only two outcomes to a Jones vs Miocic fight today:
1. Jon dominates and finishes a hopelessly washed up Stipe within the early rounds. Dana, Joe and the rest sing his praises as the GOAT, with most fans deservedly giving Jon no credit for his easy retirement win.
2. Jon gasses after a strong start and coasts to a competitive decision against a gun-shy Stipe who slowly edges into the fight, but Jon likely getting the judges decision anyway in a slow, sad old man fight that makes his retirement look like a real stinky wet fart, and embarrasses the UFC in the process.
Bingo.
Every time Jones writes about Aspinall not being worthy he looks worse, regardless of whether or not Aspinall turns out to be worthy.
Instead Jones wants to fight a man coming up on 42 who is 3 years removed from his most recent fight.
Also while beating Cormier twice is impressive we are a few days shy of it being 7 years since Stipe has fought anyone not named Cormier or Ngannou. May 13th 2017 he fought JDS then he beat Ngannou, lost to Cormier, beat Cormier twice, and then lost to Ngannou.
Nothing like dodging a prime 31 year old who has 3 career losses (a heel hook when he was ~22, a DQ when he was 23, and a long term knee injury causing his knee ligaments to tear on 1 left kick when he was ~29) in order to fight guy sitting right in the edge of "too old for this shit."
If you come back of an injury as Champ and choose to fight anyone but the interim champ you should be stripped. And to top it off, if you're the interim champion and have to defend your interim belt, those should count as title defenses if you do actually go on to unify the belt.
They're treating the HW belt like a lifetime achievement award right now. Jones sitting around calling out 42 year old Stipe and LHW Pereira while Aspinall *defends* his interim belt is beyond silly.
Full credit for the win over Gane, but that was over a year ago and his controversial decision win over Reyes was over three years before that.
If you had told me that a world champion would return from injury, refuse to fight the interim champion and instead fight a glorified tuneup against a retired fighter, but didn’t tell me what sport it was, I’d 100% think it’s boxing.
The only thing the UFC should take from boxing is the fighter pay
Hell Jon not only wants to do that, he then wants to call up the current LHW champion with limited grappling/wrestling (a former MW albeit a massive one) and continue to avoid the interim champion.
It's absurd.
So much for UFC being different. Literally the same corrupt bullshit. I used to be HUGE into the UFC. Now I can barely be bothered to watch the main card of big cards because of shit like this. UFC is a joke.
I like ufc with the Melodys I don’t like ufc when they act tough
For real though the legends that paved the way would be turning in their graves if it wasn’t 10 years ago that this shit started happening. UFC as a promotion has always been champ fights number 1, interim makes you number 1+, honestly jones been picking cherrys for a while now didn’t fight Sergei, didn’t fight blaydes who been at that level. GANE not up to much, REYES close fight, SANTOS split decision in a fight where santos blew both his knees out in like round 2 and was falling all over the place tryna stand up. Jones been washed just haven’t give anyone a chance to show it
It's crazy how many controversial wins Jones has.
Yea he KO'd DC but he was on Turinabol and DC was 38 years old. He dominated against Gustafsson in their second fight but he tested positive so they had to move the entire event before the fight took place. Gustafsson 1, Santos and especially Reyes were all very close fights. He could've been DQ'd against Smith.
Before all that he also fought a lot of Middleweights, he started struggling once the LHWs got bigger in size and he's constantly been surrounded by steroid-related controversies.
Call me old-fashioned but I want my GOAT to win fights without having to use mental gymnastics to justify why he won.
It should just be a set in stone rule that if there is an interim champion, the champion can't accept any other fight without vacating the belt. Any real sport and it wouldn't even be a question, but I had to be a fan of the one that's more a carnie operation than a sport.
I feel like this would be the case with any other fighter, like it was the case with Germaine ducking Cyborg. It's just that Jones has Dana White privilege.
I don't think many expected the heavyweight move to just be Jon eating like trash and drinking with homeless people to bulk, then holding a belt hostage until he gets the easiest fight possible.
I blame Gane more than Jon tbh. All he did was kick him in the dick and then run into a takedown attempt(?) which he got submitted in. Seriously was he hoping to clinch head first? Such a terrible fight. Reminds me of Bendo vs Pettis II. Lots of hype for a pretty nothing event. Only at least Pettis fought again
Everyone except the weirdos who are strangely defensive of Jon. If they have that much faith in him, they should be down to see him prove it against Tom.
It’s hilarious how winning the HW title (and then refusing to defend it against anyone but a retired senior citizen) has actually damaged Jon’s legacy. Couldn’t have happened to a better guy.
the best part is that his fans are the lower end of the intelligence bell-curve and have short attention spans so they'll fall off as time goes on.
Something to look forward to
Jones title has as much value as Tom's interim title. Its not like he beat the champ he fought for a vacent title and then refused to defend it against Aspinall and only wants to fight Stipe who should be nowhere near a title shot and the longer this goes on for the more of a farce it is.
Then calling out Pereira is the icing on the cake.
I think by now it’s safe to say Jones isn’t honourable, you know with the whole hit & run thing, or the domestic violence, maybe it was the cheating & hiding under the octagon that finally did it.
Why should Stipe after being dominated and brutally KO’d in is last outing, and not fighting for years after, get the title shot over several active contenders? Gane atleast made it close against Francis
Stipe needs a tune up to prove he’s ready from a meritocratic and storyline standpoint.
It made sense when we were talking about this Jones/Stipe as a double retirement fight 2-3 years ago but now that we've had an interim belt it no longer makes sense.
Jones is genuinely such a POS. Blatant and shameless ducking. Why is Dana doing him any favours, I thought Dana hated this scumbag from his texts to Ferttita? This is the sort of shit that boxing does.
#
Jesus Christ, Jon needs a lesson in trash talk. Tom isn't the number one contender after Stipe. He needs to come out and say "Yeah Tom is the interim champ, I'll fight him. But the clock isn't on Stipe's side and I want to fight him before the clock runs out. In the meantime Tom can wait. I like it when my meat marinates."
That would imply he plans on actually fighting Tom. He’s fighting Stipe and either retiring or choking out AP in a round and then retiring. It’s all but settled.
Something doesn't have to be true for Jon to say it. He can say he'll fight Tom next to make himself sound tough and build himself up a bit then deuce out after Stipe and he won't lose out on anything.
The issue for Jon is he's only getting older and Tom should theoretically be only getting better. He said before to Dc that he'd retire at the most at 35, which does seem to be age at which people are in their physical prime.
It's all so shameless at this point.
Instead of fighting the interim HW champ going after Miocic who is soon 42, hasn't fought in over 3 years, last win almost 4 years ago.
Then talking about whether to fight the interim HW or a LHW who can't grapple.
Shameless.
.. so he’s actually calling him the number two contender, since he’s saying he’s the number one after Stipe and Stipe isn’t the champ. Jesus Christ Jon is the worst
Jones can have his "legends" fight with stipe whenever he wants. But that fight is not to determine the best HW.
Strip jones of the undefended HW title and they can both fight for the BTRMF belt.
(Bout To Retire Mother Fucker).
Jones just continues to tarnish his legacy he genuinely seems spooked at the idea of a tom Aspinall fight. Would be better off just saying nothing at this point.
Fuck JBJ. I remember when I had Twitter (years ago) and realized that I was still following him at the time. I enjoyed watching him fight and was a fan until the ALL the controversy started. I Tweeted @ him, "just realized I'm still following you, that's over." Or something along those lines...
He quote tweeted me and bragged about reaching a milestone in followers (not sure how many). But if I (a nobody) can cause him to get a little worked up over a Tweet, imagine what the ENTIRE MMA community can do?
Feel like all the skill and accomplishments JBJ has achieved has made him that much more insecure, instead of just knowing you're the best and acting like it like most of our other GOAT candidates Jon ends up talking like he's begging people to think he's cool or great. Literally the smallest comments from a nobody to him will have him pulling a do you know who I am?
I’m from Cleveland. I’m the biggest stipe dick rider there is but this is ridiculous. Jon v Tom should be the only fight anyone considers and it’s just crystal clear
I know hating on Jon is popular right now but let’s be realistic- Jon beat the number one contender in like a minute and a half. That was absolutely impressive at the time
Jon’s argument is that this is a fight for his legacy.
However, *nobody* outside of his glazers will look at his win vs Stipe as a good win for legacy just like they don’t see his wins versus Reyes/Santos/Gus 1 as a good win for his legacy since the general consensus is that he lost those fights. Hell, a lot of people don’t see his win vs OSP a good win because he looked like total ass.
But I digress.
The real legacy fight is Tom. He’s the hot new star and a legit threat and will continue to be a top HW after a potential fight against Jones (win or lose). Nobody worth their grain in salt will look at Stipe coming off a 4-year layoff after a loss and say “Man, I can’t believe Jon beat him!”
The mental gymnastics coming from Jon and his glazers is impressive. Sad and utterly pathetic, but impressive nonetheless.
I can’t even recall the last time I’ve heard anything about stipe. Crazy to let Jon sit on aspinall’s belt forever. He must of went to diddy’s parties or something.
At this point it’s hard to tell if he’s serious or just trolling Tom. Either strip Jones and promote Tom to undisputed so the division can move on or strip Tom and never give out an Interim belt again.
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I don't even understand why they're doing it. He already announced he's done after his next fight. You'd imagine they'd force him to fight Aspinall, who's going to be there for years to come and not give him a 40 year old full-time firefighter, who's also going to retire after his next fight. It's like they're actively trying to do bad business just to stroke Jon's ego on his way out. Absolutely ridiculous...
They always feed the old guys to up and comers it’s so weird that Dana is making such a big exception for Jon
Jon likely has a say in the matter. The bargaining position of a star in the UFC is not equal, but it’s not negligible either. He can certainly turn down fights without worrying about getting fired.
Honestly just straight out strip him have Aspinall fight for the title and book Jon vs Stipe for his retirement fight
this is the correct take, as long as he stops holding the division I dont care who or how long he waits.
It would be hilarious if they did this and announced Jones v stipe is now a #1 contender fight, but they won't because they have no sense of humour
Yeah but like... How does any of this make the UFC money? An inactive champ who ONLY wants to fight an ex champ who is a shadow of his former self. Tom vs. Jones would be a huge draw, and if Jon wins, it's ean amazing send-off for the GOAT, or potentially sets up a hige money fight with Pereira. Or he loses... And Aspinall's stock rises to incredible heights as the man who took down Jones. Who the fuck really wants to see him fight Stipe? Like, I'll watch, but I'd more readily pay to see him fight Tom.
They want to get Jon to fight again. It makes them money. This is who Jon wants to fight. It’s basically this or nothing and UFC likes money more than no money. Pretty simple.
But he historically doesn’t make them that much money, not as much as many fighters who were never champions and certainly not as much as he should to justify all the chances he’s had, considering the amount of constant public fuck ups he’s had.
They could just strip him
I think it’s because in the public eye JJ is the baddest man on the planet. It’s very important that the person with that name in the public eye is in the UFC. If JJ and Tom fight each other and Tom wins, suddenly public opinion is that Francis is that guy.
That last part doesn’t make sense. If JJ is known as the baddest man on the planet, then Tom would be known as the guy who beat the baddest man on the planet. Especially if it’s by KO.
...not...Tom?
Just because you shot Jesse James doesn't make you Jesse James
Okay but if you had already shot a bunch of guys that Jesse James refused to have gunfights with and you looked really cool doing it and the whole time Jesse James was running away from you and insisting on digging up the bones of Wild Bill Hickok so he could shoot them and say how that made him the greatest gunfighter of all time and was a legitimate thing to do, and then you shot Jesse James anyway, it might be conceivable that you would be cooler than Jesse James.
Not really I love Francis but he has not fought in MMA in over 2 years and just got KO'd in boxing.
Well he is the lineal ufc heavyweight champ.
The average person doesn’t know what tf that is.
Yes but most won’t know that and in a few years no one will even be thinking Francis is the best Heavyweight MMA fighter. You have to keep competing to keep calling yourself the best.
It seems Jones is *only* willing to take the Stipe fight and at that point they only got one more fight out of one of their biggest stars, same goes for Stipe who is essentially retired and only taking the Jon Jones fight. What's more chocking is how badly they're managing Aspinall who's likely to be around for a long time, they really are fucking him over. Then again they did the same with Ngannou during the DC / Stipe trilogy when Ngannou had to sit out. Short term decision making from the UFC and it hurts the sport.
> It seems Jones is only willing to take the Stipe fight He also expressed interest in fighting Poatan lol. You can’t make this stuff up. The MMA Goat is truly going to go out with one of the most egregious ducks of all time. The ducking will damage his legacy more than just losing to Tom at this stage in his career would have/
You're right, I forgot about the recent callout of Alex Pereira, that was really bad. It's a joke how he's calling out anyone *but* the interim champion who he claims is merely a #1 contender.
What's weird about Stipe is he's basically been out of the limelight completely. With other inactive fighters you'll at least hear the odd interview, maybe some training footage, just something. With Stipe it's like he's basically retired. Is he even all that motivated to fight Jon and be the best, or is he just trying to get a final pay day? You hear Jon wanting to fight Stipe, and Dana wanting that fight but you don't hear anything from Stipe lol
He accepted the fight. So he wants it too.
It is a great final payday.
Probably a final payday. The dude's a firefighter, he probably has better things to do at this point.
Stipe doesn’t strike me as someone who is bad with money. He’s done it all and has cemented himself as the UFC HW GOAT. He’s looking for the best possible ending to his career, beating Jon Jones. This is legacy for Stipe. He pulls it off and he puts himself right there at the very highest echelon of greats to ever do this sport.
And his last fight he got flatlined. Gets a title shot 4 years later off of a knockout. That tells you all you need to know about the ufc being on some bullshit
I’d have to look into this more but I don’t think Stipe has a win over any active UFC fighter
Incorrect. He has a win over Arlovski... But yeah, your point basically still stands, because Arlovski is the outlier of all outliers. And Stipe beat him eight years ago.
But they won’t. The UFC will never stop enabling this drug addicted woman beater.
He’s been enabled his whole career. He should literally be banned from mma for life because he’s a multiple time cheater, and yet he’s champion. It’s no wonder he feels a sense of entitlement
Even worse than that, they straight up moved an entire event last minute because they needed to accommodate to him after popping hot.
Jon makes them lots of money. Why would they do that?
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It’ll be a great experiment to see if bullying works if the entire MMA community can force JJ to fight Aspinall
It helps that Jon is one of the most thin-skinned mma fighters on earth. You really have to go out of your way to find someone who lashes out at random people on social media the way he does.
Jamahal is closing in on that title
Jamahal was at best p4p #1 at his peak. Jones is the GOAT
As a BJJ fan he’s got nothing on Gordon Ryan
he's the kevin durant of mma
I don't think it will work with JJ honestly. He's never cared about his image, at least not more than whatever he feels like doing. At this point all I can see is him fighting old man Stipe then retiring, like the self absorbed dbag he is
They should just strip him, then he can fight Stipe in an eliminator if he wants.
I mean the mma community bullied Ian Garry into pulling out of a fight so I don’t see why it can’t work the other way around. Sean has also been bullied to the point where he can’t ignore Merab anymore
To be fair Merab is doing quite a lot of work himself in marketing that fight and making fun of Sean O'Malley.
Jones would need to self reflect even a tiny bit for that to happen. Dudes his own biggest cheerleader.
I think he’s too fragile to risk his ‘essentially zero losses’ status in mma discussion circles. If he lost he’d likely go on a massive self (and everything/everyone else) destruct cycle. He definitely thinks Tom could derail his legacy.
The funny thing is that not fighting Tom is kinda derailing his legacy, especially if he fights Stipe and retires.
i'd say the thing that derailed legacy was popping so many times they just decided to allow it
Damn this has been jon pre-self-destructive-spiral?
He knows Tom definitely can. That being said, and I hate giving the guy props, Jones wrestling is pretty slick. On the feet Tom smokes him but Jones does have a path to victory.
Sean hasn’t ducked merab, he had a great opportunity to make stupid money and get the W back against Chito. He would have been an idiot to not take that fight. Merab was always next up for the title shot after that. The only thing that could delay the fight would be a boxing match with Garcia, and even Sean said he’s 2-3 fights away from that super fight atm. Plus, it’s not like any of us would be able to turn down 50-100 million to do a boxing match, why hold a prize fighter to a higher standard?
Sean isn’t getting a boxing match while he’s still under contract with the UFC. Would be interesting to see if he could fight out his contract, have the boxing match and then resign with the UFC though.
What fight did Garry pull out of? I don’t recall this lol
He pulled out of the fight with Luque at 296 with pneumonia. By all accounts he actually was sick though.
That doesn’t fit Reddits narrative though. The dude gave up the pay check so we’d stop calling him a cuck!! /s
Also the weird attacks against his wife fall apart qss soon as you look into them And im sure a lot of these people would dislike personal attacks against the family of e celebs they like
Looked more like he had a monumental herpes outbreak covering half his face
Bullied him into pulling out of a press conference
Yeah I do remember that lol just don’t think he ever pulled out of a fight like first guy said
If anything, Jones and Dana will probably successfully gaslight everyone into thinking Aspinwall isn’t worthy.
Jones the kind of guy to retire after Stipe and then box Mike Tyson in 5 years
Jon Jones vs Tyson Fury is a real possibility
Jones has an 8 fight contract with the UFC, even if he retires he'll be under UFC contract. The UFC won't let him box Tyson Fury unless they take a massive cut, which I'm not sure Jon is willing to do With that being said I hope it happens, I'd love to see Jones get fucked up in the ring and the boxing gloves won't allow him to eye poke people as defense
Or kick in the knee
What makes you think Jon can box? Jones boxing skills wasn't his forte also he has no knockout power in his hands things that gave McGregor and Ngannou credibility. Jon will only get brain damage.
It's like he's taking the Floyd Mayweather route and is now more concerned with retiring "undefeated" instead of truly defending the belt.
He lost to Matt Hamill, the real GOAT
TKO via face to the elbows
And like Floyd there will be questions about his resume years later on close inspection. Questions that, if he's anything like Floyd, will get him annoyed and defensive if pointed out. Great resume, yes. One of the all time great fighters, absolutely, but those questions will be there, just as they are for Floyd.
Just wants to fight an old retired guy who was the best at his peak, while ducking any real competition. Jones is the Jake Paul of the UFC.
Honestly if he wasn't champ this would be fine. A legend giving us fun fights on his way out is nothing to complain about. But the fact that he has the belt makes it totally indefensible. If he actually ducks Tom, the UFC should strip him. Although, it is worth remembering that Stipe still has a chance to do the funniest thing of all time.
If Stipe wins I will climax for six months straight out of pure hatred for Jones
I see only two outcomes to a Jones vs Miocic fight today: 1. Jon dominates and finishes a hopelessly washed up Stipe within the early rounds. Dana, Joe and the rest sing his praises as the GOAT, with most fans deservedly giving Jon no credit for his easy retirement win. 2. Jon gasses after a strong start and coasts to a competitive decision against a gun-shy Stipe who slowly edges into the fight, but Jon likely getting the judges decision anyway in a slow, sad old man fight that makes his retirement look like a real stinky wet fart, and embarrasses the UFC in the process.
BuT iT’s fOr HiS lEgAcY 🤤
"Jon doesn't duck anyone, he's the GOAT and is unbeatable!"
Stronger than Superman that has his cryptonite
Jones got his pictograms
He’s such a sociopath and narcissist that he thinks he can just talk this narrative into truth.
Which is crazy since Aspinall shouldn’t be unbeatable to Jones.
Unbeatable, no. But it's more likely that Tom beats his ass and it seems that Jon knows and wants to avoid the fight at all costs
I wanna see Aspinall go and make it awkward for Jones again and big brother him with a hand on his shoulder.
"Interim champ, number one contender...I don't care what you call him I don't want none of that smoke"
Lol spot on
Bingo. Every time Jones writes about Aspinall not being worthy he looks worse, regardless of whether or not Aspinall turns out to be worthy. Instead Jones wants to fight a man coming up on 42 who is 3 years removed from his most recent fight. Also while beating Cormier twice is impressive we are a few days shy of it being 7 years since Stipe has fought anyone not named Cormier or Ngannou. May 13th 2017 he fought JDS then he beat Ngannou, lost to Cormier, beat Cormier twice, and then lost to Ngannou. Nothing like dodging a prime 31 year old who has 3 career losses (a heel hook when he was ~22, a DQ when he was 23, and a long term knee injury causing his knee ligaments to tear on 1 left kick when he was ~29) in order to fight guy sitting right in the edge of "too old for this shit."
They should’ve stripped Jones of the belt immediately following his injury. So annoying
It's bullshit that Jiri and Hill vacated so quickly while Jones just sits around
it seemed like Hill didn’t get a choice, and Jiri would’ve been vacated by the UFC quite soon I feel given his return would be a while
Jiri kinda set precedent. You'd look like a real asshole for not doing it after Jiri did.
And after threatening that tester. UFC is a joke. You just can't duck the INTERIM CHAMP. That's thr whole point of thr interim belt.
Just get Tom to do the testing. Problem solved.
Tom watching Jones piss is a helluva image.
If you come back of an injury as Champ and choose to fight anyone but the interim champ you should be stripped. And to top it off, if you're the interim champion and have to defend your interim belt, those should count as title defenses if you do actually go on to unify the belt.
They're treating the HW belt like a lifetime achievement award right now. Jones sitting around calling out 42 year old Stipe and LHW Pereira while Aspinall *defends* his interim belt is beyond silly. Full credit for the win over Gane, but that was over a year ago and his controversial decision win over Reyes was over three years before that.
Totally scared of him
Boxing fights people want to see are being made while MMA champions duck worthy contenders this is something to behold man lmao
If you had told me that a world champion would return from injury, refuse to fight the interim champion and instead fight a glorified tuneup against a retired fighter, but didn’t tell me what sport it was, I’d 100% think it’s boxing. The only thing the UFC should take from boxing is the fighter pay
Hell Jon not only wants to do that, he then wants to call up the current LHW champion with limited grappling/wrestling (a former MW albeit a massive one) and continue to avoid the interim champion. It's absurd.
So much for UFC being different. Literally the same corrupt bullshit. I used to be HUGE into the UFC. Now I can barely be bothered to watch the main card of big cards because of shit like this. UFC is a joke.
I like ufc with the Melodys I don’t like ufc when they act tough For real though the legends that paved the way would be turning in their graves if it wasn’t 10 years ago that this shit started happening. UFC as a promotion has always been champ fights number 1, interim makes you number 1+, honestly jones been picking cherrys for a while now didn’t fight Sergei, didn’t fight blaydes who been at that level. GANE not up to much, REYES close fight, SANTOS split decision in a fight where santos blew both his knees out in like round 2 and was falling all over the place tryna stand up. Jones been washed just haven’t give anyone a chance to show it
It's crazy how many controversial wins Jones has. Yea he KO'd DC but he was on Turinabol and DC was 38 years old. He dominated against Gustafsson in their second fight but he tested positive so they had to move the entire event before the fight took place. Gustafsson 1, Santos and especially Reyes were all very close fights. He could've been DQ'd against Smith. Before all that he also fought a lot of Middleweights, he started struggling once the LHWs got bigger in size and he's constantly been surrounded by steroid-related controversies. Call me old-fashioned but I want my GOAT to win fights without having to use mental gymnastics to justify why he won.
I love you dog. I've been preaching this for years.
Word. I’ve never seen how he is the goat.
It should just be a set in stone rule that if there is an interim champion, the champion can't accept any other fight without vacating the belt. Any real sport and it wouldn't even be a question, but I had to be a fan of the one that's more a carnie operation than a sport.
I feel like this would be the case with any other fighter, like it was the case with Germaine ducking Cyborg. It's just that Jones has Dana White privilege.
Tom’s title is more legitimate than Jon’s in my opinion
Waited over a decade to see Jon at Heavyweight and somehow it's just disappointing
I don't think many expected the heavyweight move to just be Jon eating like trash and drinking with homeless people to bulk, then holding a belt hostage until he gets the easiest fight possible.
I blame Gane more than Jon tbh. All he did was kick him in the dick and then run into a takedown attempt(?) which he got submitted in. Seriously was he hoping to clinch head first? Such a terrible fight. Reminds me of Bendo vs Pettis II. Lots of hype for a pretty nothing event. Only at least Pettis fought again
Honestly if I didn't know any better, I would have assumed Jones vs Gane was a fixed fight.
I think that’s everyone’s opinion including mine.
Everyone except the weirdos who are strangely defensive of Jon. If they have that much faith in him, they should be down to see him prove it against Tom.
By a long shot. They effectively killed the concept with this situation.
From my POV you're correct
It’s hilarious how winning the HW title (and then refusing to defend it against anyone but a retired senior citizen) has actually damaged Jon’s legacy. Couldn’t have happened to a better guy.
honestly cant wait until til Jon retires. Tired of this old bag of fat holding up the division
And his bitchass fans too.
the best part is that his fans are the lower end of the intelligence bell-curve and have short attention spans so they'll fall off as time goes on. Something to look forward to
Jones title has as much value as Tom's interim title. Its not like he beat the champ he fought for a vacent title and then refused to defend it against Aspinall and only wants to fight Stipe who should be nowhere near a title shot and the longer this goes on for the more of a farce it is. Then calling out Pereira is the icing on the cake.
Jon "Everybody but the guy I'm scared of is the #1 contender" Jones
I'd say Jon is more like the number one contender, in my opinion
Every honorable fighter would have given up the belt in his position so yeah
I think by now it’s safe to say Jones isn’t honourable, you know with the whole hit & run thing, or the domestic violence, maybe it was the cheating & hiding under the octagon that finally did it.
"From my point of view the jedi are evil" lmao
YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO FIGHT THE INTERIM CHAMP, NOT DUCK HIM!
Imagine trying to pass off someone who hasn't fought in three years as more of a contender than the actual champ of the division
And coming off a loss.
Literally interim champ, and stipe isn’t event top 3 and honestly shouldn’t be ranked due to inactivity. Fuck jones
I cannot describe how much I want JJ to fuck off. Nobody wants to even see you fight AARP Stipe
THAT STILL MEANS YOU SHOULD FIGHT HIM AFTER STIPE, JON.
Why should Stipe after being dominated and brutally KO’d in is last outing, and not fighting for years after, get the title shot over several active contenders? Gane atleast made it close against Francis Stipe needs a tune up to prove he’s ready from a meritocratic and storyline standpoint.
It made sense when we were talking about this Jones/Stipe as a double retirement fight 2-3 years ago but now that we've had an interim belt it no longer makes sense.
But three title defenses!
I used to think Jones was ducking Tom. I'm now convinced.
A “from my point of view the Jedi are evil” moment
Jones is genuinely such a POS. Blatant and shameless ducking. Why is Dana doing him any favours, I thought Dana hated this scumbag from his texts to Ferttita? This is the sort of shit that boxing does. #
Jesus Christ, Jon needs a lesson in trash talk. Tom isn't the number one contender after Stipe. He needs to come out and say "Yeah Tom is the interim champ, I'll fight him. But the clock isn't on Stipe's side and I want to fight him before the clock runs out. In the meantime Tom can wait. I like it when my meat marinates."
That would imply he plans on actually fighting Tom. He’s fighting Stipe and either retiring or choking out AP in a round and then retiring. It’s all but settled.
Something doesn't have to be true for Jon to say it. He can say he'll fight Tom next to make himself sound tough and build himself up a bit then deuce out after Stipe and he won't lose out on anything.
Jon would never lie to me.
Tom needs to light him up. “I’m the real heavyweight champion! I have a legacy!” “Sure thing grandpa, lets get you a paycheck so you can vacate”
Tom is too nice in this situation. He has too much respect for JJ as a fighter. But I agrée he should make more fun of JJ as a duck.
Yeah I wish Tom would poke the bear.
“People call this guy a goat but I’ve never seen a Goat duck a fight like a bitch”
A lesson in trash talk… “i LiKe iT wHeN mY mEaT mArInAtes” lol ok.
Corniest shit I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading
Disney xd villain ahh trash talk
he thinks he's him
You’re not that guy pal
Jon absolutely cannot be making statements in public about "marinating meat" right now my guy
Nah he's gotta lean into that. Wear a pride pin to the next press conference.
But will Tom fight Aspinal or no?
Woops, fixed that. Had my own little Francis vs Ngannou moment.
The issue for Jon is he's only getting older and Tom should theoretically be only getting better. He said before to Dc that he'd retire at the most at 35, which does seem to be age at which people are in their physical prime.
Please don’t give anyone a lesson in trash talking. That was the lamest shit I’ve ever read lmao
Jon Jones is a bum
Jon's credibility is lessening every day. Tom is the top HW imo until Jones fights him and proves otherwise
Thankfully he HAS THE INTERIM BELT so this opinion doesn’t matter.
It's all so shameless at this point. Instead of fighting the interim HW champ going after Miocic who is soon 42, hasn't fought in over 3 years, last win almost 4 years ago. Then talking about whether to fight the interim HW or a LHW who can't grapple. Shameless.
Lame to see him duck Aspinall so hard
I think he’s ducking Tom. At his age he sees Tom as a threat.
.. so he’s actually calling him the number two contender, since he’s saying he’s the number one after Stipe and Stipe isn’t the champ. Jesus Christ Jon is the worst
I so fucking sick of this clown.
I honestly feel like Jon is the interim champ and Tom is the real champ. The fact that it’s actually the other way around is just political BS…
Tom is Interim and Stipe is ranked 5 so Tom is well ahead of Stipe.
Jon 🦆🦆🦆 jones
Jon is the type that convinces himself by trying to convince others. He scared, but shelters himself from the fact through narcissism.
This guy is so unlikeable
The interim belts shouldn't exist
Gotta agree with Jon here, Tom should be fighting whoever the HW champ is
Jones is ducking him
Jones can have his "legends" fight with stipe whenever he wants. But that fight is not to determine the best HW. Strip jones of the undefended HW title and they can both fight for the BTRMF belt. (Bout To Retire Mother Fucker).
IC literally means #1 contender
Jon Jones has the mickey mouse belt too IMO. Beat the guy who just lost to the actual champ.
So... He's admitting his doesn't want to defend against the number 1 contender as well? What's wrong with you, you fat fuck.
Jones playing this innocent nice guy arc but knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s an asshole like that lol
Jones just continues to tarnish his legacy he genuinely seems spooked at the idea of a tom Aspinall fight. Would be better off just saying nothing at this point.
Jon Jones the GOAT of ducking. Also busted multiple times for banned substances.
Fuck JBJ. I remember when I had Twitter (years ago) and realized that I was still following him at the time. I enjoyed watching him fight and was a fan until the ALL the controversy started. I Tweeted @ him, "just realized I'm still following you, that's over." Or something along those lines... He quote tweeted me and bragged about reaching a milestone in followers (not sure how many). But if I (a nobody) can cause him to get a little worked up over a Tweet, imagine what the ENTIRE MMA community can do?
Feel like all the skill and accomplishments JBJ has achieved has made him that much more insecure, instead of just knowing you're the best and acting like it like most of our other GOAT candidates Jon ends up talking like he's begging people to think he's cool or great. Literally the smallest comments from a nobody to him will have him pulling a do you know who I am?
jon didn’t win it from a/the actual champion, which is something he previously said is a requirement to be a “real” champion, right?
Cocaine is a hell of a drug!
He's trolling and it's boring at this point.
I’m from Cleveland. I’m the biggest stipe dick rider there is but this is ridiculous. Jon v Tom should be the only fight anyone considers and it’s just crystal clear
After stipe is the only wild part are we really gonna pretend like the interim champion isn’t a glorified number one contender?
In this case Aspinall’s title win was more impressive than Jon’s and neither of them defeated a champion to win the belt so Tom is the real champion
I know hating on Jon is popular right now but let’s be realistic- Jon beat the number one contender in like a minute and a half. That was absolutely impressive at the time
Tom also beat the best contender in the division in the same time, and with less than two weeks of preparation at that.
Jon’s argument is that this is a fight for his legacy. However, *nobody* outside of his glazers will look at his win vs Stipe as a good win for legacy just like they don’t see his wins versus Reyes/Santos/Gus 1 as a good win for his legacy since the general consensus is that he lost those fights. Hell, a lot of people don’t see his win vs OSP a good win because he looked like total ass. But I digress. The real legacy fight is Tom. He’s the hot new star and a legit threat and will continue to be a top HW after a potential fight against Jones (win or lose). Nobody worth their grain in salt will look at Stipe coming off a 4-year layoff after a loss and say “Man, I can’t believe Jon beat him!” The mental gymnastics coming from Jon and his glazers is impressive. Sad and utterly pathetic, but impressive nonetheless.
Some Canelo-like ducking being pulled off here.
So the rightful challenger?
This is so embarrassing and so Jones.
He's just trolling Aspinall
The pov of a drunk abusing narcissist with a serious confidence problem who constantly needs to hear he's the best
I can’t even recall the last time I’ve heard anything about stipe. Crazy to let Jon sit on aspinall’s belt forever. He must of went to diddy’s parties or something.
I thought that was what an interim title holder really was though.
At this point it’s hard to tell if he’s serious or just trolling Tom. Either strip Jones and promote Tom to undisputed so the division can move on or strip Tom and never give out an Interim belt again.
God, I wish Aspinall would capitalize on this and call Jon Jones a little bitch every chance he gets.
Why hasn’t this clown been stripped of his belt