- Jon Jones faces Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309 on Saturday
- Jones has faced a lot of criticism for facing Miocic and not Tom Aspinall
- Jones is one of the greatest fighter of all time and deserves more respect
UFC 309 fight week has been anything but normal but that is normal in the world of Jon Jones.
Putting a certain Irishman to one side, there is no man who gets UFC fans talking more than the man many consider to be the greatest of all time.
Back in March of 2023, Jones found himself at the pinnacle of what has been both an incredible and controversial career.
Returning from a three-year hiatus, Bones finally made the move up to heavyweight that fans had longed for and did so in style.
The former light-heavyweight king dispatched top contender Cyril Gane in the first round to become a two-weight world champion.
The praise was universal, the general consensus being that this emphatic display had solidified his reputation as the sport’s greatest.
But in today’s world, credit doesn’t last long. 622 days later and Jones finds himself public enemy No 1 once again.
The 37-year-old likely hoped that his super-fight with heavyweight legend Stipe Miocic would be a perfect send-off at the end of an illustrious career.
However, he enters the fight at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night under a cloud of negativity.
There was plenty of positivity when the Miocic fight was announced in July of 2023 for UFC 295 with president Dana White saying ‘this is the fight that Jon Jones wanted. It’s the fight that Stipe wanted. It is a legacy fight for both of these guys.’
Unfortunately for Jones he suffered a pectoral tear, putting him out of action for the best part of a year.
And in that time England’s Tom Aspinall seized his moment, knocking out Sergei Pavlovich in a minute to win the interim heavyweight title before handing the same treatment to Curtis Blaydes to defend the strap.
An interim title is supposed to guarantee a shot at the champion while defences of them are extremely rare occurrences.
Now Aspinall has done that the ‘hardcore’ UFC fanbase are struggling to terms with the idea that Jones is defending his belt against a 42-year-old who has not fought since being knocked out cold by Francis Ngannou over three years ago.
The noise on social media has grown and Jones’ behaviour during this fight week has only served to amplify it.
The American has clearly grown tired of accusations of ‘ducking’ Aspinall and even walked out of an interview with Adam Catterall over fears he would be asked questions about him.
Jones also rubbed people up the wrong way with his comments about Aspinall earlier in the week, considering the Manchester native was nothing but respectful when calling him out in the first place.
‘There’s a part of me that does (want to compete with him), but if I’m being completely honest, I feel like Tom’s been such an a**hole that I don’t want to do business with him,’ Jones said. ‘His fans have been so annoying.
‘Obviously, you don’t get this far getting affected by fans and whatnot, but he’s just an a**hole. He’s 30, so he’s from this influencer generation where you hop online, t-shirt sales, and all that. I’m past that type of stuff. If you had a little bit more respect, maybe we could’ve worked something out.
‘This is a business, and fighting me gives him an opportunity to change his life forever. I don’t even want to give him the opportunity, he just played his cards wrong with me. I’m three years away from being a 40-year-old, grown man. The press conference, going through the whole shebang with him, I’d just rather not do.’
UFC fans care deeply about the integrity of the sport when it comes to rankings and titles and it has now become fashionable to jump on the anti-Jones bandwagon once again.
What these fans need to realise is this is a money making business built on stars and big fights and sometimes a fighter earns the right to do something a little bit different, as we have seen throughout the years.
The idea that Jones is ‘afraid’ of Aspinall is somewhat farfetched. After all, this is a man whose most impressive win is against Curtis Blaydes.
Yes Aspinall’s run has been impressive but the heavyweight division is not what it once was.
Aspinall has come up in a time of little quality and interest following the departure of Ngannou.
Miocic remains the biggest name in the top 15 and narrative that ‘the greatest heavyweight’ of all time is an ‘easy fight’ for a man with one heavyweight fight is equally questionable.
Jones vs Miocic made sense when it was first booked and neither legend should be castigated for going through with a money fight they earned through brilliant and long careers.
Regency bias experts believe Jones will be tarnishing his legacy by not fighting Aspinall but that legacy is already set in stone.
Jones is 37 and has achieved everything there is to achieve in the sport. He does not have to beat an up and coming heavyweight in his prime to prove anything.
The Aspinall furore has certainly made that potential fight a lot bigger but that has only happened because it wasn’t made in the first place, the Brit becoming somewhat of a martyr.
Miocic is the biggest name outside Jones in the division and it’s a shame that fans feel the need to hijack what should be an end-of-an-era-type moment when Aspinall’s time will clearly come.
The interim champ has many years ahead of him and even being involved in all of this has massively increased his star power and popularity.
Ultimately, it’s rather alarming that a fighter with Jones’ resume can be doubted quite so quickly and easily. Compare his resume with Aspinall’s and we are in two completely different universes.
Perhaps Aspinall does deserve the chance that the likes of Maurício ‘Shogun’ Rua gave Jones when he was young but that was a different time and Bones is a different level of star.
We’re lucky to see him fight again. He draws more eyeballs to the sport, which helps everyone in the sport.
He could have handled himself better, sure, but that’s just part of the jones package and he knows how to play the villain better than most. It’s all entertainment at the end of the day.
