‘Biggest duck in UFC history’: Fans react to latest Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall drama

UFC 309: Jones v Miocic — Jon Jones | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Tom Aspinall has provided an update of sorts to his ongoing rivalry with Jon Jones and it’s not going to make fans any happier.

According to the UFC interim heavyweight champion—No. 1 in the division the MMA Fighting Global Rankings—he’s done everything he can publicly and privately to let the UFC know he wants to unify the belts with Jones, the promotion’s undisputed titleholder.

Since defending his title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 this past November, Jones has entertained the possibility of a superfight with light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, while dismissing Aspinall as a worthy challenger. UFC CEO Dana White has been bullish on making Jones vs Aspinall happen, but nothing is official and it seems unlikely the fight will be announced anytime soon.

Judging by your reactions, enough is enough and it’s time for a change.

Check out the best comments from you, the readers, below. And make sure to vote in our poll, which asks if it’s time for the UFC to take the belt off of Jon Jones.

stippenstoh

Biggest duck in UFC history.

UncleHenatch

if jones wasn’t such a POS, he would vacate the belt instead of holding up the division and wasting Tom’s best years and momentum.Tom has defended the interim belt for fucks sake and has been sitting idle for 8 months now….The only sensible thing to do is strip jones, he is clearly afraid to fight Aspinal, and rightfully so.

MmaAustralia

Normally the interm champ fights the current title holder but Jones ducked that fight, a got a guy out of retirement to fight instead. Only chickens do that.

SteveHulk

It really shouldn’t have to take “f**k you” money for Jones to fight Aspinall… Jones is the (supposed) Heavyweight champion – so if he’s not willing to fight the “Interim” HW champion in his next fight, he should just be stripped and Aspinall promoted to full-champion. Simple as that.

“FunFights”

Yup. This forum is full of rabid and emotional fans who cannot disconnect themselves from their hatred to see it. Casuals don’t care about Aspinall. Most of them don’t even know who he is. They do care about Jones. He is one of the very few names left and he knows it. He will use it to his advantage. I expect him to win and most likely retire. It’s a smart move. This place is not an accurate representation of the mma fanbase.

Igl00Man

Let’s make it very simple. If Jones VS Aspinall is not announced by the end of April, strip Jones, and promote Aspinall (officially) to undisputed champion.

But realistically, this is what’ll probably happen. Jones will duck Aspinall until the end of time, and the UFC will (stupidly) book Jones VS Pereira for the summer, assuming Pereira beats Ankalaev this weekend. If Pereira loses, he’s going to heavily consider retirement (and probably decides to do so around the winter time, or in early 2026), in the mean time they book a Pereira/Ankalaev rematch, all the while Tom likely takes out another contender (likely Jailton Almeida).

Trust me, I want to see Jones VS Aspinall more than any other fight at HW, but Jones doesn’t want the smoke from a young contender who has a very good chance at dethroning him. It’s getting very tiring hearing about how this fight isn’t happening, and if Jones doesn’t want to fight Tom, then he should relinquish the belt…

But Jones being such an egotistical diva won’t do it if there’s a champ to screw over the fan favourite.

MmaAustralia

STRIP JONES NOW!!!!!! Who cares about jones its the Tom Aspinal show now. If jones is so worried maybe he should retire. His legacy of eye pokes, drug cheating, hit n run, domestic abuse, getting arrested, stalling other fighters careers, is champion level loser stuff. HOF yes GOAT no…. lets go while the world keeps spinning, strip that man now!

legkickking

jones is waiting and hoping for aspinal to defend the interim again and hopefully lose, if that doesnt happen he retiring, such a lame champ and this is the goat of the sport, if thats the case ufc is a absolute joke

LEAmaryllis

I don’t blame Jones at all for wanting to get paid for what is likely the last fight of his career, and an extremely dangerous fight against a truly skilled HW in his prime (not to say Jones can’t win, but his risk/reward calculation is legit).

I DO blame UFC for humoring him and letting him drag it out for so long. Aspinall CAN’T do more than he has in order to earn this opportunity – yes, he could fight someone like Almeida, but is that really going to make/break his worthiness for a unification fight? Just tell Jones to sign or else he’s going to be stripped.

DustinsWoifesDMs

What if Dana shocked the world and stripped jones of the title, paid Francis half of what jones is asking, booked Tom VS Francis for international fight week and saved the sport?