Fights get negotiated first and then contracts are written. If DW says "Hey Jon we want you to unify the belts with Aspinall" and Jon replies "Nope I still want Stipe and only Stipe." then:Jon doesn't book his own fights, regardless of people here think. Can't fight someone if the contract never comes.
By talking about fighting Alex Pereira.Ask yourself, does the UFC want to make that fight right now? Has Jon been offered the fight? If the answers to these questions is no then how can you duck something that isn't even on the table?
You could construe that as ducking Tom, or you could interpret it as Jon sees dollar signs in a fight with Pereira. It's not really a question of which fight would sell more PPV's and the difference is probably quite a lot. 500k vs 900k maybe?By talking about fighting Alex Pereira.
Two things:
1) you do not have any direct knowledge of what was and wasn't offered to Jones "Contractually"
2) Hypothetical scenario. If the UFC says to Jon "We want you to fight Aspinall and unify the belts" and he says "fuck that I ain't fighting Aspinall." then no written contract means Jon in that scenario isn't "Ducking"?
Dana has said there are more ways to Duck then to simply refuse a written contractually offered fight. Fights get negotiated first and then contracts get put on paper.
FIXT Q - If Jon never accepted the Aspinall fight, is Jon really ducking?
You could construe that as ducking Tom, or you could interpret it as Jon sees dollar signs in a fight with Pereira. It's not really a question of which fight would sell more PPV's and the difference is probably quite a lot. 500k vs 900k maybe?
Absolutely. But if it's someone we don't like who gets offered a job making double the pay and they don't take the less paying job we'll just call them ducking ass cowards.It is prizefighting, after all. As is oft repeated here.
How does it matter to you or me how many other people watch? More people would watch Trump vs Biden in a cage fight but that doesn't mean it should be for the UFC HW title.You could construe that as ducking Tom, or you could interpret it as Jon sees dollar signs in a fight with Pereira. It's not really a question of which fight would sell more PPV's and the difference is probably quite a lot. 500k vs 900k maybe?
The only fighters who are OBLIGED to fight a specific opponent is a Champion against the number 1 contender. Sometimes the #1 contender is not clear with multiple possibilities or not readily available. There is no more clear #1 contender then someone holding an Interim Title and Tom is available. Jon not only is holding off for the Stipe fight (understandable in some way being previously booked prior to the Interim title fight) but he has evaded whether he would agree to face Tom and unify after Stipe if he wins but now he is trying to get a fight with Pereira for the HW Title? The UFC should require the title to be Unified.1) neither do you
2) negotiations dont mean a whole lot look what happened with Francis and Jones look how many people call out McGregor look how many people khamzat has called out I guess all these people are docking according to you all these professional fighters who fight for a living don't want to fight anybody ....yet all these fights keep getting made.. contracts matter in business not talk
I gave you a simple answer and reason why Jon would want Pereira over Tom. Money. It's not complicated.How does it matter to you or me how many other people watch? More people would watch Trump vs Biden in a cage fight but that doesn't mean it should be for the UFC HW title.
If Jon wants to be the UFC HW Champion he is obliged to fight the Interim UFC HW Champion. If he wants to vacate that title he can choose whoever he wants. Fuck Jon and his desire to hold up HW and now LHW. He has a long list of title fights against MWs at LHW and now that he is a HW (took 3+ years to move up) he wants the current LHW champ (a former MW champ) to fight him at HW?
I don't know about you but I like watching UFC fights that matter in the context of proving who is the best. Who sells the most is not my concern. If I was just wanting to follow the careers of the highly paid I would be a big fan of Warren Buffett or Jeff Bezos.
I get that Jon wants money.I gave you a simple answer and reason why Jon would want Pereira over Tom. Money. It's not complicated.
Alex too wants that fight and I would love to see him get the opportunity. I don't give a fuck what Tom Aspinall wants, lmao. I'm a fan of Alex, and if Alex flatlined Jon and sent him out on a stretcher I would be ecstatic for him. So that's the fight I want to see, and you can want whatever fight you want to see.
The UFC is going to make whichever fight they want and Pereira accepted Jon's callout today and said he would be honored. I hope it gets booked. I want to see Alex challenge for greatness.
The HW title lost a lot of it's prestige when Francis left the UFC and the division has like 4 real contenders. The division is a bit of a joke so who cares? I want to see the biggest and best possible fights. I don't think Tom presents anything Jon hasn't seen before and Jon has beat better fighters like DC. I don't think Jon has ever fought a more dangerous striker than Pereira.I get that Jon wants money.
I just don't get why Jon should be able to walk around with the HW belt and talk about fighting anyone and everyone EXCEPT the guy holding the Interim HW title. Is Jon vs Alex really a fight that should be considered for the HW title. If we are going to just make fights across divisions then lets do away with titles altogether.
Jon vs Alex feels big because it is the HW champ vs the LHW champ right?
But if neither one was ever a UFC champ does it matter as much?
Being a UFC champ holds prestige because the UFC titles have been contested for the most part in the past between champions and merit based #1 contenders. Matchmaking was the priority and money has always played some role but not the only role. Jon criticized Tom's Interim title fight as him winning a fight between 2 contenders. Jon holds a HW title that was awarded to the winner of a fight between 2 contenders. By his own words his "HW Championship" isn't really legit then.
Jones supplied the cocaine Dana snorted the night he was caught slapping his wife.Nothing would surprise me at this point tbh.
I'm starting to wonder if Captain Picto has some sort of dirt on the big bald goofapotomus.
I despise jones. Testosterone levels of a 60 year old man vs dc in their first fight. DC was in acceptable range. Enter usada. Jones gets caught constantly, even hiding under the cage and assaulting testers. Yet he gets a free pass. WTF. Garcia is thrown under the bus for a minor ped. Unlike jones who was juicing to the gills like his brother.Jones is set on facing Stipe and is now talking about fighting Pereira. If the UFC allows this they are fucking up the future of their heavyweight division for a short term gain. Not only that, they are wasting a year of Aspinall's prime and what could have been 2-3 title defenses.
They've done it before. They did this for Bisping and screwed over Romero for a year. But the difference is Aspinall is young and looks like the future of the division. You would think they would want to build the guy up. The obvious way to do that is to set him up to fight the legend on the verge of retirement. Or at least give him the belt and let him start defending it.
If Aspinall were to be the first guy to beat Jones it would set him up to be a big name for them. I don't see what letting Jones crush Stipe and wrestlefuck Pereira does for anyone but Jones. It's just odd considering how reluctant Dana has been in the past to let a fighter get one over on them (angry at GSP for retiring, begging Khabib to come back).