Tom
Aspinall is beyond ready to close the book on the Jon Jones
saga.
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During an appearance on the „Good
Guy/Bad Guy“ show with Daniel
Cormier and Chael
Sonnen, Aspinall declared that is looking at Jones as a retired
athlete going forward.
“Jon’s retired,” Aspinall said (transcription via MMAFighting.com). “What are you talking about?
You guys don’t follow Jon on social media? The guy is living his
best life. He’s had a fantastic career, we all know. We know Jon’s
a religious man, so I want to say God bless him moving forward,
what he does in his life and his career, and we move on. We move
on. I’m the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. I’m ready
to take on all comers, get this division moving again. Us guys have
been waiting around too long. The guys, contenders are getting sick
of it, everybody’s getting sick of it, even the fans are getting
sick of it. Jon’s retired and it’s time that we move on.”
Jones hasn’t officially announced his retirement, but he has hinted
that his career could be drawing to a close on multiple occasions.
When he’s not doing that, “Bones” has taken great pleasure in
trolling Aspinall on social media.
“If one guy is thinking about retiring, he’s retired,” Aspinall
said. “I ain’t thinking about retiring. I’m thinking about getting
this division active, making the heavyweight division great again,
getting these big fights in, fighting these contenders who are sat
on the sidelines waiting for over a year at this point. I’m here to
fight, man.”
Aspinall captured the interim heavyweight crown with a first-round
knockout of Sergei
Pavlovich at UFC 295 in November 2023. When Jones insisted on
holding out for a legacy fight against Stipe
Miocic, the Brit defended the belt with a stoppage of Curtis
Blaydes at UFC 304 last July. As his layoff approaches a year,
Aspinall is far more concerned with being the undisputed UFC
champion than he is pursuing a fight against Jones. He also hinted
that his next fight could be revealed in the near future.
“I’m not looking to fight Jon Jones,” Aspinall said. “I’m looking
to fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship. That’s what I
want to be. I want to be the UFC undisputed heavyweight champion. I
see a lot of people comparing me to Michael
Chandler. Michael Chandler waited for a long time for Conor
McGregor. I’m not waiting for one fight. I’m not trying to
fight one guy. I’m trying to fight all the guys. I’m trying to be
the guy at heavyweight who takes out everybody.
“It doesn’t matter who it is. Ciryl Gane,
[Alexander] Volkov rematch, [Jailton] Almeida, Derrick
Lewis, Brock
Lesnar, whoever it is, I don’t care. I want to fight everybody,
and I want to fight as much as possible, get some excitement back
in this division. Let’s not talk about Jon Jones anymore. All the
best, the guy’s living his best life. Full respect to him, wish him
all the best in the future, he deserves all the money and success
that he gets. I’m the active guy, I’m going to fight somebody, and
that’s going to be announced pretty soon.”