UFC 309: Jon Jones deserving of criticism amid mounting listing of excuses for why he will not battle Tom Aspinall

From the information of getting your cake and consuming it, too, it has been troublesome to come back to phrases with Jon Jones’ self-narrative of late as the usually reclusive UFC legend has resurfaced within the media cycle getting into simply his second bout in a span approaching 5 full years. 

Jones (27-1, 1 NC) will make the primary protection of his heavyweight title on Saturday at New York’s Madison Sq. Backyard when he headlines UFC 309 towards former champion Stipe Miocic (20-4), who’s extensively thought-about probably the most completed heavyweight in promotional historical past. 

The battle, regardless of its historic intrigue, has been closely maligned by a big sector of followers and media as a result of UFC permitting it to be delayed an extra yr after Jones suffered a pectoral tendon tear. This has not solely held the division up whereas forcing interim champion Tom Aspinall to remain on the surface wanting in, it hasn’t helped from a advertising and marketing standpoint that Miocic, 42, has been idle for practically 4 years and hasn’t gained a battle since 2020. 

Jones, 37, has spent many of the final yr teasing a doable retirement after UFC 309, which solely angered critics much more relating to the UFC’s resolution to not drive Miocic to battle Aspinall throughout the 20 months since Jones final fought. However the greatest downside with Jones’ stance on retirement was that his story has continued to alter with every passing interview. 

From a public relations standpoint, the previous week has been a catastrophe as Jones has verbally contorted himself right into a pretzel with a view to justify his ever-changing reasoning behind why Aspinall (15-3), the 31-year-old native of England, who has laid waste to the heavyweight division in Jones’ absence by knocking out one high contender after one other (typically within the opening spherical), is solely not deserving to battle him. 

The truth is, it was Jones’ harm final fall that opened up the door for Aspinall to battle for the interim title to start with, on the identical MSG card at UFC 295 that Jones was initially scheduled to battle Miocic. Aspinall went on to destroy divisional boogeyman Sergei Pavlovich in simply 69 seconds earlier than defending the interim title this July by obliterating Curtis Blaydes 9 seconds faster.

However what began out as Jones merely saying the Aspinall battle presents nothing to him by way of legacy, thus the explanation why he stored teasing a retirement ought to he defeat Miocic, has now advanced right into a stance that’s rising extra convoluted by the second now that Jones has launched he does wish to proceed preventing however provided that meaning a superfight towards 205-pound champion Alex Pereira.

So, does this imply Jones is formally ducking Aspinall? At UFC 309 media day on Wednesday, Jones as soon as once more defended his case. 

“I really feel like narratives have been created that actually aren’t there,” Jones stated. “You may’t duck a person that you simply had been by no means scheduled to battle. It is like saying you’ve been turned down by a lady that you simply by no means even hit on. I get that Tom is an thrilling fighter and I get that, lastly, after 16 years we’ve discovered anyone who’s seven years youthful than me and 30 kilos larger than me. We lastly discovered somebody who might give me an important problem and everybody desires to see it so unhealthy. However for me, it is like, what’s in it for me?

“Struggle the no one [Aspinall] which may be extra harmful or battle the man [Pereira] with all the accolades who’s extremely harmful however it is going to really have an effect on your legacy. Me beating Cyril Gane did not do something for me, it simply gave me a number of extra hundreds of thousands. It will be the identical for Tom Aspinall. Whenever you look again and it is, ‘Jon simply beat Alex Pereira,’ it could be larger, it could simply be larger and anyone who cannot perceive that logic merely does not wish to.”

The most important downside with Jones’ reasoning is that for a fighter who’s trying to cement the standing of MMA’s greatest fighter in historical past after an almost good run to titles in two UFC divisions, he is not appearing very very like a G.O.A.T. The truth is, Jones’ conduct of late has resembled a unique animal comparability: a duck. 

If Jones actually was in search of another battle on Saturday to stroll away from his profession on his personal phrases, few would have challenge given the whole lot Jones has completed. However the extra you take heed to Jones change his story, the much less it begins to make sense. 

Jones has gone from saying Aspinall does not deserve the battle and he would solely proceed his profession for a “legacy battle” towards Pereira to all of the sudden introducing a brand new narrative after Wednesday’s press convention when he spoke with The Rating’s Aaron Bronsteter.

“After this battle, if we get a dominant efficiency, I am ready to vacate the heavyweight championship and battle for enjoyable,” Jones stated. “I’ve had an enormous chip on my shoulder my entire profession of getting to defend [UFC titles] … I need simply random fights like Jamahal Hlll, me and him meet up at 220 and simply see what occurs. That will be attention-grabbing to simply see what occurs. I am at an attention-grabbing weight the place I might battle heavyweights or gentle heavyweights. Derrick Lewis, who’s the largest knockout puncher in historical past. I simply wish to do enjoyable fights for me. Let’s examine if Dana permits me to try this or not.”

Jones: “I might see myself, after this, entertaining tremendous fights solely”

Jones goes on to say fighters like Jamahal Hill and Derrick Lewis as prospects. pic.twitter.com/FNXE6LVKlv

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) November 13, 2024

Hill, a former UFC gentle heavyweight titleholder, was knocked out in lower than a spherical towards Pereira in April. Lewis, in the meantime, is simply 3-5 since 2021 with 4 stoppage defeats, which makes it arduous to grasp how both might add to Jones’ legacy. 

However that is not even the half of it. 

When Jones mentions the seven-year age hole between him and Aspinall, he is forgetting it was the identical hole between himself and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in 2011 when a 23-year-old Jones set a file by changing into the youngest champion in promotional historical past after demolishing the long run Corridor of Famer regardless of having much less whole wins or victories towards ranked fighters that Aspinall at the moment has. 

Jones additionally talked a few supposed 30-pound weight benefit Aspinall would maintain over him, which additionally fails to make sense contemplating Aspinall weighed 251 kilos earlier than the win towards Blaydes in July whereas Jones weighed 248 kilos in his 2023 vacant title win over Gane. Jones is making an attempt to take a boxing strategy to his stardom in a promotion the place champions are nearly by no means afforded the chance to select and select (like, say, Floyd Mayweather in his prime, for instance) except it is within the UFC’s greatest curiosity from a enterprise standpoint to take action (which it clearly was for Jones-Miocic).

Regardless of being the best fighter to ever step foot within the Octagon, Jones has additionally been, concurrently, the largest cautionary story of an athlete who’s fortunate to nonetheless be within the place he’s in regardless of years of egregious missteps exterior the cage (from felony arrests to failed drug assessments and disturbing home violence points), together with having been stripped of titles a UFC-record thrice. 

“I simply beat Cyril Gane and we will return in a time machine and listen to the best way that folks talked about Gane together with his athleticism and his velocity, and what he did to Tai Tuivasa,” Jones stated. “After which as quickly as I beat him, it is that he wasn’t all that.”

What Jones (and even White) conveniently fail to say is that Gane entered the vacant title battle towards Jones having already been solved by a one-legged Francis Ngannou in a 2022 title loss. Then, one battle later as a heavy favourite towards the restricted Tuivasa, Gane took a ton of peculiar harm earlier than rallying to attain a late stoppage. 

When Jones speaks to followers simply wanting to seek out somebody who can compete towards him, he is additionally overlooking the second half of his profession, which noticed him vacate the 205-pound title in 2020 following a pair of disputed resolution wins over Thiago Santos and Dominick Reyes the place it turned clear the brand new technology of sunshine heavyweights had caught up with him. 

Jones, who introduced a transfer as much as heavyweight that followers had been ready on for many of the earlier decade, then went on to sit down out three full years whereas publicly preventing the UFC over cash. This coincided completely with Ngannou’s takeover of the division, which included a one-sided beatdown of Miocic of their 2021 rematch the place Ngannou captured the UFC heavyweight crown. 

The truth that it took till Ngannou exited the UFC in 2023 as a free agent to signal with rival PFL for Jones to lastly return merely cannot be ignored.  However when pressed by media members Wednesday about how a lot Jones had put down the whole lot Aspinall has completed and claimed he wasn’t deserving of a unification, his story all of the sudden modified. 

“Possibly I did not phrase it proper. The reality is, [Aspinall] does deserve many nice issues in his life and I want him a powerful UFC profession, I actually do,” Jones stated. “I’ve nothing private towards Tom. It isn’t about what Tom deserves and does not deserve, I consider it is what I deserve. And after this a few years with this firm and all of the work that I’ve put in, I consider that I’m at a spot the place I’m needing to say, ‘I do not wish to battle that man, I wish to battle this man.'” 

“A technique I have a look at it’s, would you guys fairly lose me or get another superfight? The one superfight that is sensible to me — and to not everybody else however to me and my group — is Alex Pereira.” 

If that had been Jones’ ultimate stance on Aspinall, issues may make extra sense. However just some moments later, throughout the identical media sitdown the place he stated it is nothing private towards Aspinall, Jones switched his story … once more. 

“If I am being fully trustworthy, I really feel like Tom is such an asshole that I do not wish to do enterprise with him,” Jones stated. “His followers have been so annoying. Clearly, you do not get this far in your profession being affected by followers however he is simply an asshole. He is 30 so he is from this influencer technology the place you hop on-line and the t-shirt gross sales, and all that. I am previous that kind of stuff. It is like, ‘Hey bro, possibly if you happen to would have had a bit bit extra respect we might have labored one thing out.’ Combating me offers him the chance to alter his life ceaselessly and I do not even wish to give him the chance. He simply performed his playing cards fallacious with me, personally. 

“Pereira, on the opposite facet is respectful and funky and barely says a lot. I’ll do enterprise with you. I might danger all of it with a human being such as you. And also you even have the accolades to again up your shit. This different man is only a huge mouth who’s scorching in the present day however there have been different guys who’ve been scorching in the present day and at the moment are gone.”

All one has to do is look again at UFC 304 in July to see the comedy of Jones’ stance contemplating Aspinall known as him out after the battle in fairly actually probably the most well mannered method doable. 

Tom Aspinall calls out Jon Jones after his win at #UFC304 👀 pic.twitter.com/S0wxRDGVOc

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 28, 2024

But when there was a chef’s kiss second to Jones’ wild media day, it got here instantly after the festivities ended, with Jones scheduled for a sitdown with UFC media associate TNT Sports activities from the U.Ok. Jones walked in for the sitdown and shared pleasantries with host Adam Catterall earlier than instantly standing up and exiting. 

Jon Jones WALKS OUT of an interview as a result of he doesn’t need Tom Aspinall questions 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/GaqsDtxRWV

— ACD MMA (@acdmma_) November 14, 2024

“Hey, I am not going to do that interview,” Jones stated. “You recognize, as a result of it may be an Aspinall fest, I am not going to do it.” 

Jones can do what he desires after UFC 309. However his fixed lust for appreciation following such a tumultuous profession and his ever-changing reasoning for his provocative statements have finished nothing however entice justifiable criticism throughout a time when the narrative ought to be centered upon the whole lot he has completed. 

On this case, that is on Jones. 

Who wins UFC 309: Jones vs. Miocic, and the way precisely does the battle finish? Go to SportsLine now to get detailed picks and evaluation from the incomparable professional who’s up over $1,500 on his UFC main-card picks, and discover out.