Is Jon Jones avoiding Tom Aspinall? (Debate Post)


It has been well over 400 days since Tom Aspinall was crowned the interim UFC heavyweight champion after Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic was cancelled due to Jones getting injured. Interim champions are essentially just a guarantee that you will challenge the champion when they are able to fight again, but in this case that does not seem to be true. A year after Jones vs Miocic was cancelled, Jon Jones returned to the cage to face Miocic instead of Aspinall. In the meantime, Aspinall defended his interim championship, something that has been incredibly uncommon across the history of the sport. Now we sit 4 months after the Jones-Miocic fight and the question "is Jon Jones avoiding Tom Aspinall" has come back up again. In this post I want to open up the floor for a debate on this topic, because this still is an issue that has people on both sides.

Firstly, those on the side of Jon not avoiding Tom have some valid points. The Stipe fight was already booked and was a fight between two of the greatest fighters in the history of the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions. It makes sense to re-book that fight, especially since Stipe was promised a shot at the title. One narrative that people have been behind is that Jon is scared of Aspinall, and at least in my opinion that is a ridiculous statement to make about one of the greatest fighters ever. Jon is not scared of fighting anyone, and to say that any top-level fighter is scared for the most part, is insane.

Now on the other side, many fans believe that Jon is avoiding the fight Tom, and this is the side that I have been on for well over a year. While Jon is not scared, I believe he is absolutely concerned about the risk that comes with a Tom Aspinall fight, and at this stage of his career he does not want to take that level of risk. Jon is someone who has been very calculated with who and when he fights, and now that he is likely a fight away from retirement at 37 years old, taking the risk for the first time in his career to fight a guy who is bigger, stronger, and younger is not worth it. The reason he wanted the Alex Pereira fight so badly was not just because he had a bigger name, but because Jon would be bigger and younger than Alex with a way better wrestling background. Unless Jon is given a historically high paycheck there is no chance, he will fight Aspinall. 

The most frustrating thing about this situation is that Tom is being sidelined while in his prime while he waits to for Jon to make a decision, and Jon gets to sit as champion completely freezing the heavyweight division. I figured Jon would do this, but it is still so frustrating as a fan to see. This situation needs to be resolved soon, and I think that if Jon will not agree to the fight within the next few weeks. He should be stripped of the title. I think he should have been stripped 4 months ago, but I understand the UFC wanted to wait, even though there is little to no chance Jon agrees to fight. How do you think this situation plays out? Does Jon actually fight Tom? do we continue waiting and Tom defends his interim title again? Is Jon finally stripped of the belt? Let me know in the comments below.

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