Good riddance Jones. Aspinall now undisputed.

[wandshogun09]

Finally it’s official…

When Aspinall said he’d retire Jones without even fighting him, he wasn’t lying.

Fuck off Jones. 

[kev2050]

About time. What a prick he is. 

[Egg Shen]

What a complete waste of everyone's time it has been. The UFC should have just cracked on a long time ago.  

I never put as much as stock in Jones being the "Heavyweight Champion" as some, i mean he won a vacant belt then beat the ghost of Stipe Miocic. It's not like people were gunning for him at 205lb. Tom probably had more of a right calling himself the legit Champion as Jones. 

The whole Jones at Heavyweight thing was a joke really. Anyway, we move on. Get Tom active and have him defend asap.

[wandshogun09]

Aspinall was absolutely the more legit champ. Him and Jones technically both won a vacant title but Aspinall’s quick KO wins over Pavlovich to win the thing and then Blaydes to defend it were much more impressive to me than Jones beating Gane and geriatric Stipe who had no business being there at that point.

Everyone can fuck off with the GOAT talk when it comes to Jones for me now as well, to be honest. Before this joke of a Heavyweight run, yeah, he might’ve been. Even with the PED controversies, you could make a very strong argument. But to me, how can you be the GOAT when you carry on the way he did at the end. Trying to cherry pick easy fights and then blatantly ducking the rightful challenger who also happens to be a defending interim champ? That has to knock points off surely? And no matter what him or his brainwashed fans say, this whole mess absolutely damages his legacy. In his narcissistic head he probably just thinks ‘So what? I’m a two weight champ now’ but anyone who knows ball knows this thing was a clown show. His Heavyweight ‘run’ means nothing.

This should’ve all been resolved and put to bed a long time ago. When the original Jones vs Stipe fight got cancelled in late 2023, they should’ve scrapped that one and pushed for Jones vs Aspinall then. Jones wouldn’t have done it then either, he’d have probably retired a year ago. But at least we wouldn’t have wasted another year on it.

Where’s all those people saying the whole thing was a ‘work’ and Jones was just building the fight now? I’m including Helwani in that as well. He’s changed his tune now and going ‘this is what I’ve been saying all along’, as if he’d been telling us the fight wouldn’t happen. No. Wasn’t long ago he was claiming it was some kind of promotional masterstroke from Jones and he was just making us wanna see the fight more. Then even recently, the amount of times I saw twats just ignoring all the obvious big flashing neon signs that Jones simply didn’t want the fight and going ‘nah it’s happening at MSG in November’. Just delusional, wishful thinking bollocks. In denial. Then the latest one I kept seeing them hang their hopes on was ‘they’re just holding off until the new TV deal starts, it’s so obvious’. As if everyone with a brain who saw this for what it was - an all time embarrassing duck job - were dumb and gullible and falling for Jones genius manipulation and working of us all. What they saying now? This was always the way it was gonna go. Jones never, ever, not once, showed any interest in fighting Aspinall. And even if he had been ‘working’ (he wasn’t) why would he have 1) made himself look a coward and 2) dragged it on so long that it started to genuinely go from increasing the hype for the fight to actually starting to kill it off. It was getting to that point from what I saw where a lot of people were getting so frustrated that they were just over the whole thing and reached the point where they just wanted Jones to piss off. Thankfully it seems he’s finally taken the hint. He won’t be missed. 

The answer to this is obviously no ? The thing is now, you just know Jones is somehow gonna be even more insufferable. Whoever Aspinall fights next, Jones is gonna be sitting there hating from the sidelines, desperately waiting for him to lose to someone so he can pathetically claim that win as his own and go ‘See, this is the guy you thought would beat me?’ And his besotted fanboys will lap it up and act like that’s as good as Jones beating Aspinall himself. It’s all so tiresome. And I don’t even know why Jones dislikes Aspinall so much. For having the cheek to wanna challenge him? Aspinall was more than respectful throughout this whole saga. The worst it got was him calling Jones a duck but even that seemed fairly lighthearted. But every time Jones spoke or typed about Aspinall, it was full of hostility and dismissing him. He’s gonna sit and wait for Aspinall to lose to someone, then don’t be surprised if he suddenly comes out of retirement once the big nasty man from Manchester problem has gone away. 

[Egg Shen]

Jones should have done a GSP. Had one fight at Heavyweight, beat Gane (who was on level with Aspinall at the time), then threw down the belt and definitively retired leaving everyone wondering 'what if?' but in good graces, GOAT status solidified.

That Stipe debacle ruined everything.

Edited June 22, 2025 by Egg Shen

[wandshogun09]

Even then though, I don’t really know if that solidifies him over GSP. He’d have a much better case and he might be #1 but I don’t think it’d be case closed. It certainly would’ve been better than the embarrassing shite we got though.

That’s the main problem with this whole thing. How long it dragged on. I’ve seen people argue that GSP did the same thing when he came back and beat Bisping up at Middleweight while Whittaker was interim champ. But the difference there is GSP got diagnosed with colitis, immediately vacated the belt and didn’t hold the division up at all. He wasn’t on Twitter every five minutes being all cryptic and being a condescending prick about Whittaker every chance he got and he wasn’t clinging onto the belt while having zero intention of defending it. It was a similar situation to this Jones one initially but the way GSP handled it compared to Jones is night and day. If Jones had just retired after the Gane fight, people would’ve still been disappointed that we never got more of a Heavyweight run but there wouldn’t have been a fraction of the backlash against him. Even if he’d retired straight after the Stipe fight last year, by then he’d have been getting called a duck and the reaction would’ve been worse but it still wouldn’t have held the division up that bad and Aspinall could’ve just cracked on from there. To piss about for another seven months after that though, and all the constant ‘Will he? Won’t he?’ bollocks was a terrible look for him. 

I got to the point where I pretty much gave up on Jones vs Aspinall a while ago. And if we weren’t getting that fight, I’m actually glad Jones has gone out in such a pathetic way. Who’d have ever thought that Jon Jones retirement would be announced by a knackered looking Dana at a post-fight press conference in Baku, Azerbaijan of all places? 

[Tennessee Moltisanti]

Let's not forget that Jones also ducked Francis. He sat out for 3 years to "bulk up" for heavyweight to avoid Francis.

[wandshogun09]

1 hour ago, sukhy said:

Let's not forget that Jones also ducked Francis. He sat out for 3 years to "bulk up" for heavyweight to avoid Francis.

At the time I kind of gave Jones the benefit of the doubt on the Ngannou fight not happening but the way he’s absolutely, blatantly ducked Aspinall made me wonder about that as well. While Dana and Jones spun it at the time as Ngannou leaving the UFC and fleeing from the Jones fight, the fact is Jones sat out for three years and only came back when Ngannou was out of the picture. I’ve posted this before but Jones tweeted this just two days after Ngannou knocked out Stipe and became UFC champion.

As I recall he was going through bumpy contract negotiations with the UFC at the time. He was asking for more money and the UFC were playing hard ball. Convenient that this just happened to coincide with Francis becoming champ. There are still people in denial that he ducked either Ngannou or Aspinall and they usually trot out the old ‘He’s not ducking he just wants to get paid his worth’. But if that’s the case how come he only gripes about his money when it’s Ngannou’s or Aspinall’s name on the contract? I don’t remember hearing a peep of a complaint out of him about his money when he was fighting Gane or Granddad Stipe. Nor did he bring up wanting to be ‘paid his worth’ when he was trying to fight Alex Pereira, Derrick Lewis or Jamahal Hill. Yet when it’s Francis or Tom, suddenly he’s pleading poverty? It’s as transparent and bad and embarrassing a case of ducking as there’s ever been. 

Edited June 22, 2025 by wandshogun09

[herbie747]

2 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

GOAT status solidified.

He could never be the GOAT with so many drug test failures regardless of who he beat. Since we 100% know for a fact he was cheating, then that disqualifies him from the conversation IMO. 

 

GSP is the GOAT.

[wandshogun09]

It’s fitting that this prick has gone out playing one of his greatest hits…

Bloke’s a fucking disgrace. 

[Browser Brady]

Granted the HW division isn’t exactly the most vibrant at the moment but this debacle cast a stink over the division for years.

I’m generally not a fan of interim titles or awarding people the belt. 
 

A 4 man tourney would be better but i understand that may be a bit unfair to Aspinall at the same time.

Man, the HW division needs a serious shot in the arm.

 

[wandshogun09]

6 minutes ago, Browser Brady said:

I’m generally not a fan of interim titles or awarding people the belt. 
 

A 4 man tourney would be better but i understand that may be a bit unfair to Aspinall at the same time.

Thing is though, Jones belt was no more legit than Aspinall’s. It wasn’t like Aspinall was just handed the title. He knocked out Pavlovich, who was thought of as the scariest puncher in the division at the time. If he was just awarded the belt then so was Jones when he beat Gane. Neither won it from Ngannou so they were on level terms. Jones so called ‘undisputed’ was a complete contradiction. It was never undisputed because, by definition, the fact Aspinall had a belt and had defended it before Jones defended his belt meant there was a clear dispute there about who the actual champion was. Aspinall shouldn’t have had to enter a tournament. If he had to then Jones should have had to as well because he wasn’t any more a champion than Aspinall was. They both won vacant titles and defended them once.

Oh and Dana’s already shutting down any talk of Ngannou coming back to the UFC as well. Because he’s “not a fan”. Obviously Ngannou can’t return yet anyway. Think he’s still got a fight left on his PFL contract. But Dana just not even entertaining the possibility just because he’s still bitter that Ngannou left on his terms and did his own thing, it’s pathetic but it what we expect from Dana now. Best promoter ever? Fucking idiot. 

[wandshogun09]

Cool little video from Aspinall’s YouTube channel (which is worth a sub actually)… 

Shame he never got to unify the belt properly but at least he can get moving again now. Who do we reckon he’ll fight now? I’d imagine Ciryl Gane’s gonna be the front runner, that’s the name I’m seeing come up most. Don’t really get why he’s being talked about as the obvious most deserving challenger but whatever. Not like we’re spoilt for choice is it. I actually think Jailton Almeida is the more interesting and tricky fight for Aspinall but we’ll see. Hopefully Aspinall can go on a long run now. He might not have a bunch of big fights on the horizon at the moment but if he can just bulldoze his way through and rack up title defences, that’s as good as it can get in the current landscape until hopefully an interesting contender or two emerge from somewhere. Not sure where because there’s not even really any standout Heavyweights outside the UFC who they can bring in. It’s looking bleak. But Aspinall’s by far the best thing the division has going for it at the moment so I’d be happy enough to see him just go on a long streak of title defences now. 

[Dai]

The stink from this will continue if it is indeed Gane next. That will be months worth of Jones fans saying how the next challanger is someone who Jones rinsed within a couple of minutes, and isnt in Jones' league.

 

Might get some stick for this, but the whole heavyweight stuff only matters to a small portion of the die hard fans. For the majority of longer term fans, Jones is the GOAT, and the squash of Gane definately adds to his legacy, with the rest of it not even being remembered. All of the rest of it, the 'ducking' of Francis, and the Stipe stuff will be mostly forgotten about when talking about Jones in the grand sceme of things. Even without all the social media trolling and holding the division up, I think it is fair to say GSP did the exact same things Jones did, and only came back when he knew it was a weak champion there (nothing wrong with that, either). Ebb saying the whole Stipe stuff 'ruined everything' is insanity, and clearly not true. At worst, it will be a very small footnote to his career when looking back at it in 5/10 years.

 

This has sure left a bad taste in people's mouths, but over the coming years he will still always be regarded as the GOAT. Even with the drug fails, that wont matter either, I dont think.

[Egg Shen]

5 hours ago, Dai said:

Ebb saying the whole Stipe stuff 'ruined everything' is insanity, and clearly not true. At worst, it will be a very small footnote to his career when looking back at it in 5/10 years.

 

Oh, I didn't mean for the legacy of Jones' career. I meant for the state of the Heavyweight division and setting in motion this absolute shit show we've been having to follow the last year.

The UFC/Jones/White's fixation on putting that Miocic fight together was baffling. Outside of Jones who probably saw Stipe as a soft touch defence, what was the point? Stipe wasn't a draw, he was coming off a KO loss nearly 4 years prior, and all evidence showed fans he was a mess physically. All whilst the UFC had an Interim Champion in place that everybody wanted to see fight Jones. The whole thing looks worse in hindsite too because of what happened after.