Jon Jones defended his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic after winning it against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285. Tom Aspinall, who holds the interim heavyweight belt has been seeking a title unification fight against Jones for which 'Bones' recently demanded six months for preparation. An MMA analyst claims that Jones is ducking Aspinall while outlining the only probability for the fight to happen.
After winning the title, Jones remained focused on defending it against the heavyweight legend Miocic. Following his win over Miocic, Jones indicated a desire to fight Alex Pereira.
However, Pereira sustained a light heavyweight title loss against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313. Hence, the equation for Aspinall to finally stake a claim at the undisputed belt became a lot clearer.
MMA analyst Luke Thomas shared his two cents on Jones' demand of six months to prepare for Aspinall on his YouTube channel and said:
Get the latest updates on One Championship Rankings at Sportskeeda and more
"The case up to this point to me has been a little bit presumptuous, people just kind of assuming he [Jones] did it by reading into motivation or trying to get the assessment of the tea leaves here and it was a little bit astrology, trying to look into things that weren't necessarily there. But maybe I'm reconsidering that a little bit. I mean we're just talking about somebody who is constantly putting obstacles in front of the only fight that matters... a gigantic lucrative fight."
He added:
"In this heavyweight scenario, he was going to go from March to November, from Ciryl Gane to Stipe before he got injured. The injury is not his fault that's fine, I understand it but, 'oh well I don't wanna fight Tom Aspinall I wanna fight Poatan, oh I might retire, oh I might F U money, oh I need six months.' ...There's one other scenario to consider here which is, this might be his retirement fight, and if it's a retirement fight he has obviously a great role in determining when and where it takes place."
Check out Luke Thomas' comments on Jon Jones below (10:20):
Tom Aspinall reveals his retirement plan, wants to fight Jon Jones and John Cena in a WWE tag team match alongside Cody Rhodes
Tom Aspinall has been holding the UFC interim heavyweight title since November 2023. Amid constant callouts to Jon Jones for a title unification bout, Aspinall revealed his wish to fight Jones and John Cena in a WWE tag team match alongside Cody Rhodes.
In a brief conversation with The Schmo, Aspinall revealed his crossover to WWE as a part of his retirement plan. He said:
"That's my retirement plan. Cody Rhodes is my guy. Me and Cody, we will have a match one day, I think we might team up, me and Cody Rhodes cause we're both baby faces aren't we? Maybe we could fight Jon Jones and whoever the heel is over there. ... Well John Cena just turned heel, So Cody Rhodes, Tom Aspinall tag team vs. Jon Jones and John Cena, baby faces vs. heels big match up."
Check out Tom Aspinall's comments below (2:50):