When you don’t end up doing something that you’re supposed to do, when you shy away from a certain responsibility, even your greatest supporters become your doubters. That’s what’s been happening with Jon Jones with his refusal to fight Tom Aspinall. This “will they, won’t they” has really been getting under the skin of fans, and now, members of the community like experts, analysts, and fellow fighters are criticizing the two-weight champion for not unifying the titles with English interim champion, Tom Aspinall, who even ended up defending his interim title.
This conversation trickled into The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where the UFC color commentator sat down with Brendan Schaub and Co. to speak about this scenario. Joe Rogan mentioned how Jones was probably holding out for 6 months to gain as much money (and a skill advantage) from the fight as possible.
Schaub added, “Which you can’t be mad at, but also you know Tom Aspinall, I think soon he’ll be the interim champ for the longest ever over 500 days, that’s not good.” According to the UFC color commentator as well, Aspinall is going to be the interim heavyweight champion for almost 500 days now, which is “crazy.”
The two-weight UFC champion took almost 3 years out of the Octagon to train for his move to heavyweight and made his debut in March 2023. He won the UFC heavyweight championship against Ciryl Gane in two minutes. ‘Bones’ seems to be doing something similar this time as well, and allegedly demanded 6 months to prepare for the fight against Aspinall.
Schaub added, “That’s just negotiation tactics, it’s like dude, he’s been on your radar for 3 years, and you took two years to get ready for heavyweight, what are we doing?” The podcaster also mentioned that Jones is pretty meticulous with his preparation before a fight, but isn’t six months too much?
Madison Square Garden NEW YORK CITY, NY -NOVEMBER 16:Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic meet in the octagon for a 3-round bout for UFC309 – Jones vs Miocic at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City, NY Photo by Louis Grasse/PxImages Louis Grasse / SPP PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxBRAxMEX Copyright: xLouisxGrassex/xSPPx spp-en-LoGr-lrg2411164283824_UFCVegas309
As per Talksport, as of March 24, 2025, ‘Bones’ has remained the champ “for 750 days after winning the belt by defeating Ciryl Gane in 2023.” Jonny ‘Bones’ defended the belt once, beating Stipe Miocic at UFC 309. Presently, Cain Velasquez carries the record for the longest-presiding UFC heavyweight champion, and he has held the belt for 896 days during his second chapter as champion. Does Jones want to extend that time? Perhaps.
Well, for Tom Aspinall, things seem good as compared to before because he had some interesting updates about the fight. While speaking to CBO Hunter Campbell during UFC’s Fight Night in London, he had some good news.
Tom Aspinall is optimistic about Jon Jones fight
The Brit recently spoke to Ariel Helwani and gave a positive update about the whole ordeal with the title unification bout. “We did a little meet and greet… Straight after that, we went across town and met Hunter [Campbell]. That was probably around 10.30 pm,” Aspinall explained on The Ariel Helwani Show.
“Hunter has always been extremely personable and reasonable with me… we had a fantastic meeting. Everything went amazingly. I understand my position now. I understand what the company’s doing now, and you gotta stay tuned, my friend. There’s some big news coming.”, the English interim heavyweight champion said.
Aspinall has waited long enough, and it’s almost 500 days since he became the interim HW champ. In fact, he declared that he was ready to move on from Jones if this fight did not materialize and got an offer from Magomed Ankalaev. Ankalaev took a jibe at Jones and wrote, “Johnny steroid machine was very disappointed. I beat Alex please fight big Tom Aspinall stop running,” on X.
He followed the post by calling out Aspinall saying,“Big Ank [handshake] Big Tom,” and Aspinall agreed with a handshake emoji on his Instagram story. However, with the latest update that he received from Campbell, Aspinall seems optimistic about his chances against Jones.
Since Dana White and Aspinall are on board, along with the UFC CBO, do you think it’ll not be long for the mega fight? Will we see a matchup between Tom Aspinall and Jon Jones soon?
The post “You Took 2 Years to Get Ready” – Joe Rogan Reacts as Jon Jones’ UFC Scenario Leaves JRE Guest Furious appeared first on EssentiallySports.