Tom Aspinall understands what game Jon Jones is playing at.
It’s been more than a year since Jones first touched heavyweight gold, winning the vacant title from Ciryl Gane at UFC 285. The undisputed champion hasn’t fought since, withdrawing from a title defense against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 due to a shoulder injury. That’s where Aspinall came in.
Fighting in the absence of Jones vs. Miocic, England’s Aspinall took out Sergei Pavlovich in more than a minute to become the interim heavyweight champion and enter the conversation for quite possibly being the best heavyweight fighter in the world today.
Jones’ Manager Tried To Stop Aspinall From Getting Close To The Champ
Of course, that’s argued between him and Jones, who finally came face-to-face after Aspinall’s campaign to fight ‘Bones’ for undisputed status. The heavyweights met at the Arnold Sports Festival UK and as Aspinall now reveals, the encounter almost didn’t come to be.
“We were both doing meet and greets, but we were like 20 meters away from each other the whole time,” Aspinall said on ‘The MMA Hour‘. “Whole day and then I was like, we can’t, I can’t just leave without doing so, like, saying hello. I just want to go and say hello, but his manager [Abraham Kawa] didn’t want me to go over. Tried to [stop me]. And even when I went over, like I was in pretty close to him and he was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, you can’t do this!’
“I was like, no, no, I’m just saying hello. We just wanna say hello, that’s all. I’m not trying to like, cause a scene or nothing. I honestly wasn’t trying to cause a scene. I just wanted to see like face-to-face. That’s why I said, are we gonna do this or what? And he’s like, ‘Oh, I’d like to…’ Gimme the brush off and that’s it.”
‘Bones’ Doesn’t Want To Go Back On His Word, Says Aspinall
Call it ‘ducking’ or whatever you want, Aspinall acknowledges it was a ‘smart’ move for Jones to not give him a promotional inch on a potential fight. Turning 37 years old this year, Jones’ next fight could very well be his last and ‘Bones’ still prefers to fight former champ Stipe Miocic (41) over the much younger Aspinall (30).
“Jon’s smart, you know…” Aspinall added. “Jon will not say anywhere, you can’t find it, it’s not out there that he will fight me. He won’t say it anywhere, publicly. He won’t say it. You can’t find a clip, a quote, nothing anywhere of Jon Jones saying, ‘One day I’m gonna fight Tom Aspinall and I’m gonna freaking beat the brakes off him and that’s what I’m gonna do’. That doesn’t exist.
“He doesn’t want any evidence anywhere of him agreeing to any kind of fight with me anywhere. Cause he doesn’t wanna go back on that. Like he doesn’t wanna do a face off cause that promotes a potential fight. When I ask him, Jon, are we gonna do this? He will not say, ‘Absolutely, lemme get Stipe out the way and we’ll do it’. He’ll instead say, ‘Oh, maybe one day,’ because he doesn’t want that quote of we are gonna fight one day and it’s super smart.”
Will we see Jon Jones fight Tom Aspinall someday? Or will ‘Bones’ ride off into the sunset without unifying the title?
