Daniel Cormier, a former UFC champ who knows Jon Jones well, is sounding the alarm for Tom Aspinall. On his Good Guy-Bad Guy show with Chael Sonnen, Cormier shared some hard truths. He believes Aspinall, the interim heavyweight champ with a knack for quick finishes, could hit a wall when he faces Jones, the undisputed king of the division. After Jones’ latest win, Cormier’s words carry extra weight, and he’s got a lot to say about why this fight might not go Aspinall’s way.
Cormier painted a clear picture of Jones’ strengths.
“He’s very mean,” he said on the show. “He’s durable, he’s hard to fight, and Tom Aspinall is going to find that out, right? So yes, Chael, I love the duck, I love all the fun, I love all that, but at the end of the day when you get in there with that dude, don’t start rethinking things. Because you start rethinking things in there with that dude, he’s going to run right through you. You cannot start going, ‘Hey, man, it’s a little harder than I thought,’ because he is going to put it on you.”
Jones isn’t just skilled, he’s got a nasty edge and staying power that could overwhelm Aspinall if the young fighter hesitates.
Why Aspinall’s Hype Could Backfire
Cormier also talked about the pressure Aspinall might feel.
“You know what the craziest thing is about being Tom Aspinall and being young and winning? The fans and the world can really make you go, ‘I am going to get this dude,’” he continued. “And then you’re in there and you start losing, and you’re like, ‘God dang it, how am I losing?’ How does he deal with that if that starts to show itself in the fight or a long fight, because it’s going to be hard to get Jon Jones out of there in a minute.”
All the hype around Aspinall could lift him up, but if things go south against Jones, it might shake his confidence fast.
Jones proved his staying power on November 16, 2024, at UFC 309. He took on Stipe Miocic, a former champ, and finished him with a spinning back kick to the body in the third round at Madison Square Garden. It was his first title defense since beating Ciryl Gane for the heavyweight belt in March 2023.
Aspinall, meanwhile, won the interim title in November 2023 by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich in 69 seconds and defended it against Curtis Blaydes in July 2024. These two could square off to decide the true heavyweight boss, matching Jones’ crafty experience against Aspinall’s raw speed and power. But Cormier, who’s been in the cage with Jones twice, thinks the champ’s grit could be too much.
