Dana White remains insistent that Jon Jones vs.
Stipe
Miocic is the fight to make in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s heavyweight division.
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Jones was originally scheduled to defend the undisputed heavyweight
title against Miocic at UFC 295 in November 2023 before pulling out
due to an injury. Tom
Aspinall went on to knock out Sergei
Pavlovich in a short-notice interim title fight put together to
help save the card.
Despite no clear timeline in sight for Jones’ return to the
Octagon, “Bones” wasn’t stripped of his title. Meanwhile, Jones
remains adamant on facing Stipe
Miocic, who hasn’t fought in more than three years, in his
return to action. That bout has been rumored for November, but
nothing is official at this point in time.
The UFC CEO not only continues to vehemently defend that matchup,
but is visibly irked about Jones losing his status as UFC
pound-for-pound king due to inactivity. The UFC rankings are
decided by the votes of media members, who according to White, are
proving their ignorance by not ranking Jones No.1 on the P4P
list.
„Jon
Jones is ranked No. 3 pound-for-pound in the world… It’s the
most f—ing ridiculous, embarrassing, stupid, know nothing about
f—-ing fighting ranking of all f—ing time,” White recently told
Kevin Iole. “Jon Jones is
still an active fighter. He beat Ciryl Gane.
He got injured. He was supposed to fight, he’s gonna fight again in
November. Jon Jones is
the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Period. End of
story. Whether you want to call Islam [Makhachev or Alex] Pereira
No. 2 or No. 3, all good. To have anybody above Jon Jones
right now just goes to show that you know absolutely f—-ing nothing
about combat sports and fighting.“
Aspinall recently defended his interim title against Curtis
Blaydes via first-round knockout at UFC 304
in Manchester last month. While White acknowledges Aspinall’s
achievements, the UFC CEO doesn’t believe “Honey Badger” has paid
his dues as much Jones and Miocic. However, White says the winner
of that potential matchup definitely owes Aspinall the opportunity
they have been granted.
“There’s not enough credit being given for this: What [Aspinall]
did to Curtis
Blaydes, the way that he did it and how fast he did it. There’s
no doubt this guy is a scary dude, and he looks like the future of
the heavyweight division,” White said. “But at the same time, he is
working his way up, he’s climbing up the ladder. And everybody’s
like, ‘He deserves this, he deserves that.’ He doesn’t deserve
anything.
“He looks great, looks like he is gonna be the guy. You got Stipe
and Jon, who have paid their dues, they’ve been here forever,
they’ve fought everybody, they’ve fought all the fights you could
possibly fight. These guys deserve to fight each other. Whoever
wins that fight, I think that they owe it to Aspinall to fight him
and give him the opportunity that they’ve been given.”