The undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, has been called out for holding up Tom Aspinall‘s career, as fans are waiting for their impending title unification clash. His financial dispute with Dana White and Co. is seemingly what has kept him away from action, as he claims the interim champion needs to fight him more than he needs to fight Aspinall. But is that a really wise decision? MMA veteran John McCarthy claims it isn’t.
Jon Jones has previously sat down for almost three years because he wants the UFC to give him what he’s worth. “I have no interest in fighting in the UFC until I get paid what I believe I’m worth,” he said in 2020. Fast-forward to 2025, ‘Bones’ is demanding “f— you money.” Well, stalling too much won’t help his cause because John McCarthy claims that he could join Conor McGregor on the slowly forgotten fighters’ list.
As big as they are among the fight fans and as great of a persona they show to the fandom, what matters is actually staying active and delivering inside the Octagon. Fans have almost given up on a return from Conor McGregor, who’s looking to become the Irish President, and has been away from the game for almost four years. John McCarthy claims Jon Jones is also not that far away from fans turning their backs on him.
“You can be the most popular fighter… Conor McGregor has been the most popular fighter in the UFC, and there are people now that go, ‘I don’t give a s–t anymore. I don’t care,’” John McCarthy stated on the Weighing In podcast. “So, you can lose it, and Jon never really had it to where he was a favorite. He was never the fan favorite. He was always kind of like the heel. That’s okay. You can be the heel. But yeah, you get to the point [when] no one even cares if you’re fighting. And when you’re that good, there’s something wrong.”
March 5, 2023, Las Vegas, NV, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, United States: LAS VEGAS, NV – March 5: Jon Jones meets with the media following his win over Cyril Gane at T-Mobile Arena for UFC 285 -Jones vs Gane : Event on March 5, 2023 in Las Vegas, NV, United States. Las Vegas, NV United States – ZUMAp175 20230305_zsa_p175_003 Copyright: xLouisxGrassex
John McCarthy isn’t the only one criticizing Jon Jones, stalling the Tom Aspinall fight; there are others, too. One of his biggest critics has been Chael Sonnen, but in a recent statement, ‘The American Gangster’ didn’t seem surprised that ‘Bones’ was doing what he has been doing. Let’s take a look at what he had to say.
Jon Jones ‘trolling’ fans did not surprise Chael Sonnen
Jon Jones loves to play the villain, and it has been pretty apparent recently. He’s been pretty open about his thoughts on fighting Tom Aspinall, as fans keep tagging and commenting on his posts on social media. Chael Sonnen isn’t surprised that Jones has chosen to approach the ‘ducking’ claims because that has always been the way that the undisputed champion has operated for most of his UFC run.
“I’ve rather enjoyed Jon Jones trolling the MMA world. He’s told the UFC his plans, and he’s not asking them to keep it secret. Watching fans get upset while he stays silent—it’s classic Jon,” Chael Sonnen stated in a video on YouTube. He also sympathized with Tom Aspinall, who could lose his interim title because, with the undisputed champion still carrying his belt, the interim title doesn’t really have value.
“Imagine that—we’d have to strip Tom of a title that, by definition, he can’t even really hold,” Sonnen further added. “It’s like going in circles just to protect Jon’s narrative.” Dana White doesn’t look like he’s interested in stripping Jon Jones as he did to Islam Makhachev recently when the latter decided to move to welterweight. So, Sonnen believes Tom Aspinall could be the sacrificial lamb.
Well, what do you think about the drama surrounding Jon Jones? Let us know in the comments down below.
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