The winner of Aspinwall/Pavlovich will be a hundred times more deserving that Stipe
Stipe is slowly but surely closing on 3 years without fighting and he got sent to the shadow realm by Ngannou in his last fight AND he'll be 42 soon and he's a full time firefighter.
Why would that man be more deserving of a shot than the new interim champ ? Doesn't make any sense
only reason is "he was champ a long time ago" and "he's got the defense record" but that doesn't count anymore because it's been 3 years since then.
Of you give a shot to stipe after that then give another one to Whittaker, Usman, Oliveira, Holloway and Sterling because yes they all have a better case to make than stipe who hasn't fought in 3 years and is coming from getting KTFO'd while closing on 42 years old.
I don't know it makes sense to me. If he refuses to take a #1 fight that proves even more that he's just here for a paycheck against Jones and isn't even fully invested into it
What do you think?