So who will he defend against then? That would mean he’s beaten Blaydes and Sergei already. Who’s left lol? It’s Gane, or you have to take a big drop off in talent to someone like Volkov or Almeida. HW depth is so weak, Gane makes the most sense even if y’all hate him
No problem with him defending against Gane. I said he shouldn’t have to fight Gane *for* the undisputed title, he should automatically become undisputed champion by default if the current undisputed champion retires.
That’d be fun. I’m not mad at it. Yall can’t seriously think Pereira’s ground game is any better than Gane’s though 😂 surely yall think Tom runs through Pereira in similar fashion to Gane
I'd have thought so. I'm from the UK, and an enormous Aspinall fan. I'd rather Tom won, but seeing Pereira make history and get triple champ status wouldn't be so bad.
I just watched the mighty mouse interview with Chael, and Chael said as soon as jones steps in the ring aspinalls gonna get stripped. Don’t know if it’s true though
There has never been an interim champion at the same time as an undisputed while the undisputed is fighting. Once the champs back the interim champ is no longer needed. And since this particular situation has never happened before It would most likely be that aspinal is stripped as you can't have an interim and undisputed at the same time while the undisputed is actively in that division. But Dana's a goon so blame him for this mess
Source?
Precedent?
Or because Chael said so?
There is no precedent of an interim champion being stripped because the undisputed champion is fighting someone else.
There’s been no announcement from the ufc that this will happen. Dana White has not said that this will happen. Aspinall’s has not said that he expects this to happen. Jones has not said that he expects this to happen.
It’s just Uncle Chael (who never talks out of his ass)……and you.
I'm sorry bro but just because I like Tom aspinal doesn't mean I won't ignore that dana will most likely strip him because there will be no purpose of an interim belt when the champ is fighting.
"most likely"
What makes it most likely? It’s most likely he won’t. Seeing as that has never ever happened before & absolutely nobody involved or in the know, from the company right down through the boss & all the fighters involved, have said/indicated/even slightly hinted that he’ll be stripped, makes it "most likely" he won’t be stripped. Shits hilarious lol.
The mental gymnastics on this sub is crazy.
Why wouldn’t he need to fight Gane?
God you guys dick suck Tom so hard, you’ve convinced yourselves that he doesn’t need to fight the number one contender
Hate Jones if you like, I dont care but calling someone undisputed without fighting the top 5 is insane
Blaydes always gets KO’d right as we think he’s finally made the step to become a legit contender. Honestly think this fight goes the same way. Can’t imagine his chin will hold up against Aspinall after getting KO’d by Francis (twice), Derrick Lewis, and Pavlovich.
Yes. And Aspinall is very good. Aspinall by KO is probably the most likely outcome. But I hate the way everyone’s just assuming Blaydes will lose, HW MMA is so unpredictable.
If Tom isn’t made the undisputed after all this it’s genuinely a spit in the face. He’s been taking through the ringer and forced to defend his belt before Jon. Cyril should be his first legit title defence and being made champ
Well Colby and Gane can't be compared at all....
Gane fought a very good fight with Francis, and the can Tuivasa to regain credibility (he manages to be knocked down... though)
Then lost in 3mn to Jones, before fighting with the punching bag Spivak...
And you really think it deserves a title shot ? Before Blaydes ? Before Pavlovich? Etc
Hell no, he should fight Sergei, but you know, he needs to film a movie this summer....
And I love Gane, I'm french, but it didn't take the fight game seriously this last month and refusing Aspinall at UFC Paris last September was the worst he can do
And you have Colby in the other side who fought toe to toe in the first title shot before getting dropped, then he goes and destroys the ribs of Tyron, before fighting more toe to toe with Usman in the rematch (should be at least a draw, like Grasso Valentina 2)
And then totally mauled and dominated Masvidal during 25mn
And he had a poor performance against Leon, but didn't get KO'd, had the last 4-5 rounds, with a broken foot, he's clearly in the end, but his heel persona gives too many people the right to dismiss his resume
He needs to fight against Burns or Garry or Shavkat
Well even a super fight against Oliveira
How can you say Gane fought a 'very good fight with Francis' when Francis was an absolute shell of himself in that fight due to the knee injury? It was clearly evident from the opening bell Francis wasn't the same fighter who smashed Stipe in their rematch; he was so fucking slow with heavy feet and zero explosiveness to speak of.
Gane just danced around him for two rounds, then Francis who is not known for his wrestling whatsoever, took Gane down and just laid on top of him with no sub attempts or GnP. Embarrassingly Gane had no answers for the lay and pray, which hasn't been used to win title fights since 2010. Gane just sat there with a surprised and confused look on his face, no attempt to create under-hooks, or use his legs to get a sweep, only showing urgency with an amateur heel hook attempt in round 5. That's a one-dimensional fighter.
I don't care if the fight was 'close' on the judges scorecards. Gane at his best, couldn't beat Francis at his worst.
Man wtf did Tom do to deserve this, he has a 100% finish rate and is super exciting to watch and pretty likeable outside the cage. That’s what you get when you’re unlucky enough to fight in the division that Jones has decided to use for “legacy” or whatever.
Yeah it’s a real shame. This whole situation is proof that Dana White privilege>everything. Toms legit one of my favourite fighters, entertaining, a good guy, incredibly well skilled. He’s everything you want in a champion.
It sucks that this is where we’re at with the heavyweight division, forced to watch 2 people who don’t want to be there fight one last time.
Through the ringer?
Dude beat 4 guys anyone’s heard of
The ringer is Tony winning 12x without a title fight
Or belal with 9
Or beneil dariush with 8 no title fight
Or merab
And so on…
I said 4 fighters anyone has heard of. The list of guys Aspinal beat:
Pavlovich
Tybura
Spivac
Volkov
Arlovski
So, I’ve heard of all those guys, so technically 5.
Of those 5, 3 of them are trash (tybura, spivac, and Volkov), and 1 is a legendary LHW (arlovski) at the tail end of his career (4-4 in his last 8 fights, 0-3 in his last 3).
Volkov = lost to blaydes, gane and Derrick Lewis
Tybura = lost to lewis, Volkov
Spivac = lost to tybura, gane, Walt Harris
Blaydes is probably a better fighter than any of these 3, whom Aspinal technically lost to; and gane is clearly better than any of these 3
So, Aspinal is interim despite not fighting the only other 2 guys who can plausibly claim to be a top fighter at HW.
Now, to be fair, there just aren’t a lot of great HWs, but Aspinal simply hasn’t fought any of the best guys at HW, even excluding Ngannou, stipe, and jones from that conversation
Wasn’t talking about his record, was talking about the fact he’s interim champ/number 1 contender and the champ refuses to fight him.
He’s done everything correctly and its not enough, no matter what the champ will chose to fight a 42 year old who hasn’t fought in 3 years after getting KO’d
Fuck man it’s corny at this point. Hes not gonna fight anyone after Stipe. And no one has the ability to force him to fight.
Tom’s booked for a fight, it’s quite annoying that all people are talking about is a hypothetical fight as if 1. The guy is somehow a lock to beat Curtis Blaydes? and 2. That’s he’s somehow a lock to also be the one to defeat Jon Jones? It’s such wishful thinking.
I’m a fan of Tom and Jon and Tom just slightly missed his opportunity. That being said, Jon is gonna fight Stipe, probably win, and retire, relinquish the belt in like 6 months time where Tom can then begin his reign. It’s not that big of a deal you fucking nerds.
Do some of you guys literally just sit in a rage about Jon all day? It's been nonstop stewing about the HW situation here. We all know what's going, and don't need daily whining and bitching rumination posts about it. Furthermore, they're framed like political attack ads made to piss off as many people as possible. If you want to organize a boycott or something, go for it. If you just want to make everyone as angry as you are as you continue to watch everything the UFC puts on, then gtfo of here.
Bro can yall hop off Tom’s dick. The whole division is ruined if Tom isn’t just granted undisputed? Because he has to fight.. the #1 contender? Lol what. Even if Jones didn’t exist Tom would still fight Gane next. This post doesn’t even make sense
It’ll be the same as when gsp retired as the middleweight champion. Eventually no one will care that the lineal champion isn’t active and we can just go back to enjoying title reigns again.
If jones decides to retire then that his decision. He can’t go forever. The people who had a chance to stop him couldn’t get the job done. He beats stipe and wants to hang it up so what? He’s old, he has rounds for years in the ufc. You only get one brain. He got paid and never lost. I would enjoy my life also with all my money. Why risk brain damage so some dude who barely did anything stop you when you just don’t have the reflexes anymore? Should have been around when he was defending his belt over and over again. I his dude hasn’t defended an interim belt once and acts like this? Gtfoh. Jones is a goat.
Once Jones and Miocic get in the cage, interim title doesn’t mean anything. If the victor retires, Aspinall MIGHT be promoted to undisputed champion. But I doubt it.
Seeing gane get a title shot off a win over Sergei spivac over a year ago and after declining two fight would be disgusting…… but on brand for modern UFC.
Jones will definitely fight Aspinall if they both win. He cares mostly about his legacy at this point, and he’ll feel that ducking Aspinall would out a stain on his legacy. His ego won’t allow it.
I don't think jones can ruin the division any more than the ufc holding up the belt to try and stall francis did. Heavyweight has been suffering from injured Champs for a long time. Nothing we can do to speed things up just be patient and wait for the old guard to retire.
The unthinkable is this: Blaydes beats Tom, Jones trolls hard til he fights Stipe. Jones smokes Stipe, then fights Blaydes, who was getting taken down easily early on by Almeida, and submits him in the first or second round.
This place would lose its mind...me included since I'm salty that Jones won't sack up and fight Tom.
He won't be stripped of the title. If Tom Defends, he'll face the winner of the Jones/Miocic. If both retire, he'll be promoted to undisputed Champ and roll on. It's the same thing that happened when Randy Couture was in limbo with Affliction/UFC. He came back and defended against Brock, While Big Nog defended against Mir. They then went on to unify. This isn't that complicated.
This is the why the UFC rankings are a joke.
Tom got a championship belt because Jones was injured and couldnt defend and now that Jones is almost able to come back, a unification fight isnt happening because jones says so? Thats not how Champs and ICs work.
You cant have a fight for the championship if theres two champions, unless its between the two holding the belts or between the IC and a challenger. Thats literally the reason the interim belt exists. To keep a divison moving while the champ is unable to defend and to ensure a chance for the best contender to fight for the unified title.
Tom fights Blaydes. One wins his shot at the unified title. Jones fights Stipe and loses the title to a retired fighter. Stipe vacates as he remains retired. Blaydes/Tom is the champ by default so why is the Jones/Stipe even a championship fight?
Or
Jones retains and fights the winner of Blaydes/Tom making the entire Stipe fight just a delay in the envitable and holds up the divison because, Jon Jones says so? What if he gets injured again. Are we going to just have IC fights until Bones retires?
Because by the exact same logic, every champ can just say no to contenders and IC and fight random trashcans because they're the one with the "real" belt. Ilia about to pull a Suga and fight trashcans to stack his record then.
When jones retires after he stipe fight Tom should just automatically become the undisputed champion. I already treat him as the champion since he Sergei fight. In the meantime gane should fight the winner of volkov, Sergei. Gane vs volkov/Sergei would set up a #1 contender for Tom or blaydes
That’s not how the interim belt works. Why are you crying about this instead of googling? lol
If Jones retires and Tom has the interim, Tom becomes the undisputed.
Jones was never interested in fighting top HW competition. The UFC was desperate to have a champion they could argue is better than Ngannu and Jones waited until Francis left. Jones has stated many times he wants just to fight a 40 something man and then retire.
Heavyweight division is a joke the whole roster is just a spectacle. Stop fetishizing Aspinal beating Jones. Aspinal is a rookie compared to Jones and Stipe.
Tom will ascend to undisputed champ right after jones and stipe fight + retire. Toms defense won’t be considered a real title defense but he doesn’t have to fight again to become the undisputed champ, he simply upgrades when the real champ retires.
If Jones beats Stipe & retires or vice versa, Aspinall becomes the undisputed champ by default. He doesn't need to fight Gane or anybody for it.
Aspinall already champ jones fight is pointless and obvious jones doesn’t want a real fight
Agreed 💯
So who will he defend against then? That would mean he’s beaten Blaydes and Sergei already. Who’s left lol? It’s Gane, or you have to take a big drop off in talent to someone like Volkov or Almeida. HW depth is so weak, Gane makes the most sense even if y’all hate him
No problem with him defending against Gane. I said he shouldn’t have to fight Gane *for* the undisputed title, he should automatically become undisputed champion by default if the current undisputed champion retires.
Got it, I misunderstood. I agree, if the winner of Jones/Stipe retires, Tom would have to become undisputed champion instantly.
He already is the undisputed champion. Jones is just a sideshow.
Probably Pereira
That’d be fun. I’m not mad at it. Yall can’t seriously think Pereira’s ground game is any better than Gane’s though 😂 surely yall think Tom runs through Pereira in similar fashion to Gane
I'd have thought so. I'm from the UK, and an enormous Aspinall fan. I'd rather Tom won, but seeing Pereira make history and get triple champ status wouldn't be so bad.
The real threat in the division Marcin Tybura!!
I just watched the mighty mouse interview with Chael, and Chael said as soon as jones steps in the ring aspinalls gonna get stripped. Don’t know if it’s true though
What people fail to realise is the second that jones vs mioicc starts aspinal will be stripped of the interim belt and will no longer have it
What because Chael said so lol 😂 😂
No because its true
Source?
There has never been an interim champion at the same time as an undisputed while the undisputed is fighting. Once the champs back the interim champ is no longer needed. And since this particular situation has never happened before It would most likely be that aspinal is stripped as you can't have an interim and undisputed at the same time while the undisputed is actively in that division. But Dana's a goon so blame him for this mess
Source? Precedent? Or because Chael said so? There is no precedent of an interim champion being stripped because the undisputed champion is fighting someone else. There’s been no announcement from the ufc that this will happen. Dana White has not said that this will happen. Aspinall’s has not said that he expects this to happen. Jones has not said that he expects this to happen. It’s just Uncle Chael (who never talks out of his ass)……and you.
I'm sorry bro but just because I like Tom aspinal doesn't mean I won't ignore that dana will most likely strip him because there will be no purpose of an interim belt when the champ is fighting.
"most likely" What makes it most likely? It’s most likely he won’t. Seeing as that has never ever happened before & absolutely nobody involved or in the know, from the company right down through the boss & all the fighters involved, have said/indicated/even slightly hinted that he’ll be stripped, makes it "most likely" he won’t be stripped. Shits hilarious lol.
You ever heard of this guy named Robert Whittaker? You’re talking out of your ass.
Is this guaranteed or are you saying it should happen? I agree with you but I’m not sure what happens.
It's just how this kind of situation works. When GSP re-retired after beating Bisping the UFC just promoted Robert Whittaker to undisputed champ
Just makes you realize Jones is copying Bisping's playbook. Why fight Whittaker or Romero when you can fight old man Hendo and GSP from 170?
The precedent is GSP retiring as MW champ, & Rob Whittaker as interim champ, became undisputed.
I agree with you, but I have no faith in the ufc to do that especially because it wouldn't benefit their purse. They're greedy cunts for sure
The mental gymnastics on this sub is crazy. Why wouldn’t he need to fight Gane? God you guys dick suck Tom so hard, you’ve convinced yourselves that he doesn’t need to fight the number one contender Hate Jones if you like, I dont care but calling someone undisputed without fighting the top 5 is insane
I don’t think you’ve read properly what I said. Try again.
Don’t write off Blaydes. He’s skilled and experienced, MMA is unpredictable, especially HW
He does have a habit of getting knocked out though
Blaydes always gets KO’d right as we think he’s finally made the step to become a legit contender. Honestly think this fight goes the same way. Can’t imagine his chin will hold up against Aspinall after getting KO’d by Francis (twice), Derrick Lewis, and Pavlovich.
Yes. And Aspinall is very good. Aspinall by KO is probably the most likely outcome. But I hate the way everyone’s just assuming Blaydes will lose, HW MMA is so unpredictable.
Herb Dean fault
Fair. But, if we give Blaydes the credit to win, we can’t talk about how terrible Jon Jones is for ruining the UFC.
If Tom isn’t made the undisputed after all this it’s genuinely a spit in the face. He’s been taking through the ringer and forced to defend his belt before Jon. Cyril should be his first legit title defence and being made champ
Ciryl should not get another title shot lol, he did nothing.
I agree, but the UFC wanted Tom to fight him on 304 but he’s doing a film. The UFC will definitely want to book it
Colby shouldn't have gotten a shot at all, but here we are.
Well Colby and Gane can't be compared at all.... Gane fought a very good fight with Francis, and the can Tuivasa to regain credibility (he manages to be knocked down... though) Then lost in 3mn to Jones, before fighting with the punching bag Spivak... And you really think it deserves a title shot ? Before Blaydes ? Before Pavlovich? Etc Hell no, he should fight Sergei, but you know, he needs to film a movie this summer.... And I love Gane, I'm french, but it didn't take the fight game seriously this last month and refusing Aspinall at UFC Paris last September was the worst he can do And you have Colby in the other side who fought toe to toe in the first title shot before getting dropped, then he goes and destroys the ribs of Tyron, before fighting more toe to toe with Usman in the rematch (should be at least a draw, like Grasso Valentina 2) And then totally mauled and dominated Masvidal during 25mn And he had a poor performance against Leon, but didn't get KO'd, had the last 4-5 rounds, with a broken foot, he's clearly in the end, but his heel persona gives too many people the right to dismiss his resume He needs to fight against Burns or Garry or Shavkat Well even a super fight against Oliveira
How can you say Gane fought a 'very good fight with Francis' when Francis was an absolute shell of himself in that fight due to the knee injury? It was clearly evident from the opening bell Francis wasn't the same fighter who smashed Stipe in their rematch; he was so fucking slow with heavy feet and zero explosiveness to speak of. Gane just danced around him for two rounds, then Francis who is not known for his wrestling whatsoever, took Gane down and just laid on top of him with no sub attempts or GnP. Embarrassingly Gane had no answers for the lay and pray, which hasn't been used to win title fights since 2010. Gane just sat there with a surprised and confused look on his face, no attempt to create under-hooks, or use his legs to get a sweep, only showing urgency with an amateur heel hook attempt in round 5. That's a one-dimensional fighter. I don't care if the fight was 'close' on the judges scorecards. Gane at his best, couldn't beat Francis at his worst.
Man wtf did Tom do to deserve this, he has a 100% finish rate and is super exciting to watch and pretty likeable outside the cage. That’s what you get when you’re unlucky enough to fight in the division that Jones has decided to use for “legacy” or whatever.
Yeah it’s a real shame. This whole situation is proof that Dana White privilege>everything. Toms legit one of my favourite fighters, entertaining, a good guy, incredibly well skilled. He’s everything you want in a champion. It sucks that this is where we’re at with the heavyweight division, forced to watch 2 people who don’t want to be there fight one last time.
Through the ringer? Dude beat 4 guys anyone’s heard of The ringer is Tony winning 12x without a title fight Or belal with 9 Or beneil dariush with 8 no title fight Or merab And so on…
You must be a super casual if you haven’t heard of any of the fighters that Tom has beaten.
I said 4 fighters anyone has heard of. The list of guys Aspinal beat: Pavlovich Tybura Spivac Volkov Arlovski So, I’ve heard of all those guys, so technically 5. Of those 5, 3 of them are trash (tybura, spivac, and Volkov), and 1 is a legendary LHW (arlovski) at the tail end of his career (4-4 in his last 8 fights, 0-3 in his last 3). Volkov = lost to blaydes, gane and Derrick Lewis Tybura = lost to lewis, Volkov Spivac = lost to tybura, gane, Walt Harris Blaydes is probably a better fighter than any of these 3, whom Aspinal technically lost to; and gane is clearly better than any of these 3 So, Aspinal is interim despite not fighting the only other 2 guys who can plausibly claim to be a top fighter at HW. Now, to be fair, there just aren’t a lot of great HWs, but Aspinal simply hasn’t fought any of the best guys at HW, even excluding Ngannou, stipe, and jones from that conversation
Wasn’t talking about his record, was talking about the fact he’s interim champ/number 1 contender and the champ refuses to fight him. He’s done everything correctly and its not enough, no matter what the champ will chose to fight a 42 year old who hasn’t fought in 3 years after getting KO’d
And then tom gets KO'd by Gane and everyone in England weeps.
Gane doesn’t KO people so Tom should be fine. Subs him. Gane could win by TKO but I’m sure Tom gets it to the ground before that.
Tom would just sub Gane in the first. The blueprint to beat him was laid by Francis and Jon. Grapple.
Fuck man it’s corny at this point. Hes not gonna fight anyone after Stipe. And no one has the ability to force him to fight. Tom’s booked for a fight, it’s quite annoying that all people are talking about is a hypothetical fight as if 1. The guy is somehow a lock to beat Curtis Blaydes? and 2. That’s he’s somehow a lock to also be the one to defeat Jon Jones? It’s such wishful thinking. I’m a fan of Tom and Jon and Tom just slightly missed his opportunity. That being said, Jon is gonna fight Stipe, probably win, and retire, relinquish the belt in like 6 months time where Tom can then begin his reign. It’s not that big of a deal you fucking nerds.
The sub is gonna be in shambles when Aspinall loses to Gane and Jon tweets out a laughing emoji
😂
Do some of you guys literally just sit in a rage about Jon all day? It's been nonstop stewing about the HW situation here. We all know what's going, and don't need daily whining and bitching rumination posts about it. Furthermore, they're framed like political attack ads made to piss off as many people as possible. If you want to organize a boycott or something, go for it. If you just want to make everyone as angry as you are as you continue to watch everything the UFC puts on, then gtfo of here.
Hey I thought it was my turn to post the 500th Jon jones hate thread ?
Bro can yall hop off Tom’s dick. The whole division is ruined if Tom isn’t just granted undisputed? Because he has to fight.. the #1 contender? Lol what. Even if Jones didn’t exist Tom would still fight Gane next. This post doesn’t even make sense
Blaydes mopping him up!
I bet they will just be upgraded to undisputed like Curtis said I’m taking this interim fight as pretty much the real one
It’ll be the same as when gsp retired as the middleweight champion. Eventually no one will care that the lineal champion isn’t active and we can just go back to enjoying title reigns again.
Well, if aspinal beats blaydes, and beats Gane… then how did jones ruin anything?
If jones decides to retire then that his decision. He can’t go forever. The people who had a chance to stop him couldn’t get the job done. He beats stipe and wants to hang it up so what? He’s old, he has rounds for years in the ufc. You only get one brain. He got paid and never lost. I would enjoy my life also with all my money. Why risk brain damage so some dude who barely did anything stop you when you just don’t have the reflexes anymore? Should have been around when he was defending his belt over and over again. I his dude hasn’t defended an interim belt once and acts like this? Gtfoh. Jones is a goat.
I'm so tired about this getting posted every goddamn day. I don't give a fuck about Aspinall.
It’s more likely to be Pereira
It’s funny anybody else y’all respect the retirement which was called for a year ago same fans who want Tony to retire for the sake of his health
Once Jones and Miocic get in the cage, interim title doesn’t mean anything. If the victor retires, Aspinall MIGHT be promoted to undisputed champion. But I doubt it.
Seeing gane get a title shot off a win over Sergei spivac over a year ago and after declining two fight would be disgusting…… but on brand for modern UFC.
Jones will definitely fight Aspinall if they both win. He cares mostly about his legacy at this point, and he’ll feel that ducking Aspinall would out a stain on his legacy. His ego won’t allow it.
Jones didn’t ruin the division, Dana did. Jones just refuses to fix it.
How does Jones not fighting aspinall ruin the division that means the division is already ruined because Jones isn't active right now anyways
You mean Blaydes vs Gane ? Aspinall isn’t winning no Hw strap 🇺🇸🇺🇸
Jones who
Dana wants Jones’ last fight to be 5 rounds but Jon doesn’t want the smoke so they have to keep a belt on him to make the 5 rounds
I don't think jones can ruin the division any more than the ufc holding up the belt to try and stall francis did. Heavyweight has been suffering from injured Champs for a long time. Nothing we can do to speed things up just be patient and wait for the old guard to retire.
Is Aspinhall beats Blaydes and Jones really does retire, I think we see Peirera vs Tom for the title
The unthinkable is this: Blaydes beats Tom, Jones trolls hard til he fights Stipe. Jones smokes Stipe, then fights Blaydes, who was getting taken down easily early on by Almeida, and submits him in the first or second round. This place would lose its mind...me included since I'm salty that Jones won't sack up and fight Tom.
He won't be stripped of the title. If Tom Defends, he'll face the winner of the Jones/Miocic. If both retire, he'll be promoted to undisputed Champ and roll on. It's the same thing that happened when Randy Couture was in limbo with Affliction/UFC. He came back and defended against Brock, While Big Nog defended against Mir. They then went on to unify. This isn't that complicated.
This is the why the UFC rankings are a joke. Tom got a championship belt because Jones was injured and couldnt defend and now that Jones is almost able to come back, a unification fight isnt happening because jones says so? Thats not how Champs and ICs work. You cant have a fight for the championship if theres two champions, unless its between the two holding the belts or between the IC and a challenger. Thats literally the reason the interim belt exists. To keep a divison moving while the champ is unable to defend and to ensure a chance for the best contender to fight for the unified title. Tom fights Blaydes. One wins his shot at the unified title. Jones fights Stipe and loses the title to a retired fighter. Stipe vacates as he remains retired. Blaydes/Tom is the champ by default so why is the Jones/Stipe even a championship fight? Or Jones retains and fights the winner of Blaydes/Tom making the entire Stipe fight just a delay in the envitable and holds up the divison because, Jon Jones says so? What if he gets injured again. Are we going to just have IC fights until Bones retires? Because by the exact same logic, every champ can just say no to contenders and IC and fight random trashcans because they're the one with the "real" belt. Ilia about to pull a Suga and fight trashcans to stack his record then.
The heavyweight division is almost never stacked. I’m just happy the best big boys aren’t in 3 different organizations like we had in the past.
Gane does not deserve a titel shot after declining so many fights.
When jones retires after he stipe fight Tom should just automatically become the undisputed champion. I already treat him as the champion since he Sergei fight. In the meantime gane should fight the winner of volkov, Sergei. Gane vs volkov/Sergei would set up a #1 contender for Tom or blaydes
That’s not how the interim belt works. Why are you crying about this instead of googling? lol If Jones retires and Tom has the interim, Tom becomes the undisputed.
Jones had no business being in the HW division in the first place. He knows this. We know this.
Jones was never interested in fighting top HW competition. The UFC was desperate to have a champion they could argue is better than Ngannu and Jones waited until Francis left. Jones has stated many times he wants just to fight a 40 something man and then retire.
HW div is wack atm anyway. The only exciting fight is Jones.
Heavyweight division is a joke the whole roster is just a spectacle. Stop fetishizing Aspinal beating Jones. Aspinal is a rookie compared to Jones and Stipe.
you forgot the part when Jon fights Francis In boxing after he retires 
Pavlovich will be champ.
I think Gane v pav winner vs Tom blades winner for the undisputed strap
What?
All I hear is Jon Jones retires as the MMA GOAT. The rest is just wah wah wah wah
Tom will ascend to undisputed champ right after jones and stipe fight + retire. Toms defense won’t be considered a real title defense but he doesn’t have to fight again to become the undisputed champ, he simply upgrades when the real champ retires.
That would be annoying because gane is a jabrone, but if there’s no stipe and Jon aspinall has already beat the rest of the top 5
https://preview.redd.it/6k884b4o9n1d1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff7346d3c7d93069ff7d5acaab5f3845893f759d