Rumored Aspinall willing to be released from the UFC?

[egk]

Carroll spent time with Aspinall recently so based on that alone he's plenty more credible on this topic than Reuben Carter or Josh Thomson.

Lots of hand wringing and emotion and supposed symptoms in that article but still, nowhere does it say what the surgery is supposed to fix or what the surgeon did. A lot about "clockwork orange" type crap but the writer never says what type of surgery it actually was. The article is written like someone pitching a Lifetime movie. Tom should try to get out of the contract and hope for a feature.

I'm not taking a stand on this either way but this is exactly why people are skeptical and talking about things like LASIK.
Are we supposed to subscribe to Tom's paid youtube channel to get the details? If it's for Brown's syndrome that releases tendons why not just fucking say that? I swear Tom and his management's opacity just fuels the conspiracy theories.

 

[MDoza]

All the years of shortsighted decision making and beefing with fighters publicly has all these chickens coming home to roost

I've got no love or affinity for Tom, but this is the story of the HW division going all the way back to the Randy Couture/Josh Barnett days

Mir sidelined by that wreck early into his career, Tim Sylvia being so widely disliked, couldn't sign Fedor, Cain gets tkoed in 64 seconds by JDS for the Fox debut and losing to Werdum in Mexico city, Reem was popping hot one fight removed from his debut vs Lesnar, only for Lesnar to then get an exemption for the Hunt fight down the road, the issues between Dana and Stipe, Francis leaving with the lineal championship just to end up ducking an easy Jake Paul payday in boxing...
And now Tom's hiatus as a follow up to Bones' vanity tour in the division...

If you ever think FLW was mishandled, or tgat WW has been stalled unnecessarily and LW has suffered from rank squatters for too long...

You have to laugh (almost deliriously) at the HW timeline

I actually don’t blame the UFC for this one. The UFC was in negotiations with Jones, which were reportedly going well and they reached a figure that Jones agreed to.

The plan was for Jones to get his legacy fight against the “HW GOAT” Stipe Miocic, then fight Aspinall. The assumption was that Aspinall would win, which would legitimize him and the rest of the division for the foreseeable future.

The issue came when Aspinall started running his mouth and calling Jones a duck, and then he got the media and fans behind him to turn on Jones.

Jones is an egomaniac. You can’t goad him into a fight with insults. He didn’t need the Aspinall fight. He had all the power to turn down the fight and ruin Aspinall’s career and the future of the HW division. If Aspinall had stayed respectful and just waited, Jones more than likely would have given him the opportunity. But Jones was not going to let Aspinall try to clown him in front of the fans and media, then go turn him into a global superstar by fighting him, so he took his ball and went home.

 

[CombatCyborg]

That's fair, the UFC has treated him like shit. I can't imagine it's what Aspinall wants, but it must rankle to think back on the Jones/Stipe fiasco and how he wasn't stripped then.

 

[markg171]

He beat the top ranked HW in Pavlovich when he was on a five fight first round KO streak and got the interim title.

He wanted to fight Champ Jones but Jones led him on for a year until he decided to retire.

Since he was Interim Champ that meant the title was disputed, Jones walking away from the fight meant there was no longer a dispute and the interim becomes the only tile as it's now undisputed.

He also wiped out half the top 10 in a combined 12 minutes.

And then Tom failed to beat the very guy Jon beat for the legitimate title.

Oh.

 

[Slapjit]

Any word on his #PowerSlap debut?

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

I actually don’t blame the UFC for this one. The UFC was in negotiations with Jones, which were reportedly going well and they reached a figure that Jones agreed to.

The plan was for Jones to get his legacy fight against the “HW GOAT” Stipe Miocic, then fight Aspinall. The assumption was that Aspinall would win, which would legitimize him and the rest of the division for the foreseeable future.

The issue came when Aspinall started running his mouth and calling Jones a duck, and then he got the media and fans behind him to turn on Jones.

Jones is an egomaniac. You can’t goad him into a fight with insults. He didn’t need the Aspinall fight. He had all the power to turn down the fight and ruin Aspinall’s career and the future of the HW division. If Aspinall had stayed respectful and just waited, Jones more than likely would have given him the opportunity. But Jones was not going to let Aspinall try to clown him in front of the fans and media, then go turn him into a global superstar by fighting him, so he took his ball and went home.

Jon was always angling for Stipe from the beginning, even though Stipe wasn't the champ, so it's not like Jon was only going to be up there for the belt. They were shooting for UFC 282 and I don't remember hearing why Stipe didn't sign. The fact the UFC went to a HW belt for Jones as a sort of backup or to make up for the Stipe fight not happening stuck a knife in the division.

I think I wouldn't have been too put off if they wanted to do a HW division double header in early 2023, with Gane vs Pav for the undisputed belt, then headlined by Jones vs Stipe for some glorified title, sold on legacy, like some HW BMF belt. And the division would have been so much better off.

Jones could have made up his mind in comfort without expectations to fight. Blaydes was right around the corner for the main title. Tom would have been back up later that year. We'd be well past where we are in the standings and Gane wouldn;'t have been dented as much as a contender by the Jones whomping he got. Or maybe Jon would still decide to dive in and not walk away, but then he'd actually have been fighting the champ at that point, so it would have meant something.

 

[Steve Fox]

That's fair, the UFC has treated him like shit.

How was he treated like shit?

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

I actually don’t blame the UFC for this one. The UFC was in negotiations with Jones, which were reportedly going well and they reached a figure that Jones agreed to.

The plan was for Jones to get his legacy fight against the “HW GOAT” Stipe Miocic, then fight Aspinall. The assumption was that Aspinall would win, which would legitimize him and the rest of the division for the foreseeable future.

The issue came when Aspinall started running his mouth and calling Jones a duck, and then he got the media and fans behind him to turn on Jones.

Jones is an egomaniac. You can’t goad him into a fight with insults. He didn’t need the Aspinall fight. He had all the power to turn down the fight and ruin Aspinall’s career and the future of the HW division. If Aspinall had stayed respectful and just waited, Jones more than likely would have given him the opportunity. But Jones was not going to let Aspinall try to clown him in front of the fans and media, then go turn him into a global superstar by fighting him, so he took his ball and went home.

Sure, and this particular incident doesn't bug me very much bc I've been biased against Tom since his performance after the poke.

But in a general sense, the UFC has never been great at managing the momentum of certain divisions. But the way they've fumbled HW and nearly half the guys who held the belt there over the last 20+ years

Its quite the achievement. Pick a fighter, any fighter at HW.
From Cro Cop being matched with Eddie Sanchez and Napao coming off the OWGP to Francis murking most of the top 6 while DC and Stipe fought 3 times over 3+ years with the rubber match being a shitty Apex dud..

They just can't be given the benefit of the doubt at this point

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

Aspinall just got pieced up by Cyril Gane and he wants to box?

His gameplan in MMA against a striker was to take him down.. and he wants to box?

Boxing gloves usually don't have fingers sticking out of them.

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

Jon was always angling for Stipe from the beginning, even though Stipe wasn't the champ, so it's not like Jon was only going to be up there for the belt. They were shooting for UFC 282 and I don't remember hearing why Stipe didn't sign. The fact the UFC went to a HW belt for Jones as a sort of backup or to make up for the Stipe fight not happening stuck a knife in the division.

I think I wouldn't have been too put off if they wanted to do a HW division double header in early 2023, with Gane vs Pav for the undisputed belt, then headlined by Jones vs Stipe for some glorified title, sold on legacy, like some HW BMF belt. And the division would have been so much better off.

Jones could have made up his mind in comfort without expectations to fight. Blaydes was right around the corner for the main title. Tom would have been back up later that year. We'd be well past where we are in the standings and Gane would have been dented as much as a contender by the Jones whomping he got. Or maybe Jon would decide to dive in and not walk away, but then he'd actually have been fighting the champ at that point, so it would have meant something.

The biggest criticism of Jon's HW run was that he'd been talking about it since 2013 or so, back when Cain and JDS were the top dogs lol. He knew that wasn't the "right time"

Not only did he say he didn't wanna fight DC at HW due to that being an advantage for Daniel, and he definitely and deliberately waited til Francis left to finally move up, I just couldn't pretend to be shocked it was for a couple of ideal match ups at best.

He'd more than earned the right to leave the game on his terms considering his resumé and age by the time Tom was the obvious next opponent, but the move up was always with too many caveats from the go imo.

 

[Alpha_T83]

Assuming this is true I wish him the best. I'm sure Dana has treated him like shit behind the scenes too.

IDK why they defend Gane instead of punishing him. Maybe they'll actually do something when he pokes Pereira in the eyes for a vacant HW title fight.

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

Boxing gloves usually don't have fingers sticking out of them.

But they do allow jabs, footwork, more than just one rd. etc.
Things Tom may continue to have issues with if he can't immediately by KO

 

[El Fernas]

To be honest, i dont believe the UFC needs to ask...At best they create an interim title, just like his, and that eventually leads to unification, or stripping of Aspinall, all of that while not giving up to his demands...the UFC owns the title and his contract.

PS: Is he the first to take so much time off from an eye poke? or time off at all blaming it on the eye poke, i think Namajunas recently posted she was going into eye surgery, yet she finished the fight, one of the most "flimsy", for lack of a better word, mental health fighters, she finished the fight, scheduled eye surgery like a week after.

 

[markg171]

Lots of hand wringing and emotion and supposed symptoms in that article but still, nowhere does it say what the surgery is supposed to fix or what the surgeon did. A lot about "clockwork orange" type crap but the writer never says what type of surgery it actually was. The article is written like someone pitching a Lifetime movie. Tom should try to get out of the contract and hope for a feature.

I'm not taking a stand on this either way but this is exactly why people are skeptical and talking about things like LASIK.
Are we supposed to subscribe to Tom's paid youtube channel to get the details? If it's for Brown's syndrome that releases tendons why not just fucking say that? I swear Tom and his management's opacity just fuels the conspiracy theories.

Exactly. There's no difference between one of Tom's crew accompanying him and what this supposed journalist wrote up. He literally just took everybody at their word and reported exactly what they told him.

Nowhere does he even ask what procedures being done to Tom and how that's supposed to cure the Brown's Syndrome his medical report says he has. Wtf is the point of this article other than to slap a CBS label on it for attempted legitimacy for Tom? Which is what 80% of the article is: just "woe is Tom, internet trolls are making fun of him, he's really hurt guys".

Tom went for laser eye surgery, from a laser eye surgeon, at a laser eye surgery clinic. Laser eye surgery targets the cornea, not the tendons that affects Brown's. Tom has been wearing glasses since at least 2021, long before he pulled them out again post eye poke. You just have no questions about this amazing coincidence that Tom has a different problem that can be fixed by LASIK?

This is the problem with MMA "journalists". 99% of them are too awestruck to actually dig into anything and so just report verbatim whatever they're told so that they can have access these fighters they admire.

 

[Oscar Madison]

Dana ((Hunter)... Ari) should let Tom buy his way out of his UFC contract --

by having Aspinall give 50% of his future combat earnings to the UFC.

 

[markg171]

To be honest, i dont believe the UFC needs to ask...At best they create an interim title, just like his, and that eventually leads to unification, or stripping of Aspinall, all of that while not giving up to his demands...the UFC owns the title and his contract.

PS: Is he the first to take so much time off from an eye poke? or time off at all blaming it on the eye poke, i think Namajunas recently posted she was going into eye surgery, yet she finished the fight, one of the most "flimsy", for lack of a better word, mental health fighters, she finished the fight, scheduled eye surgery like a week after.

Remember when Yair poked Stephens and they simply fought again like 3 weeks later

 

[El Fernas]

Remember when Yair poked Stephens and they simply fought again like 3 weeks later

Yup, one of my references for this, the poke looked really bad at the time, he posted pictures of his eye all mesed up the following days, they fought like 3-4 weeks after.

Something else to consider, that eye poke happened like 15 seconds into the fight, Stephens was clearly in pain, not just "i cant see" type of thing while looking concerned holding a towell against the eye, Aspinall average fight is ended in less than two minutes, this was 4:30minutes and he was losing...got eye poked, took the way out, at this point the UFC should just schedule an Interim title fight and move on, if he doesnt return on timely manner, then tough luck, strip him.

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

To be honest, i dont believe the UFC needs to ask...At best they create an interim title, just like his, and that eventually leads to unification, or stripping of Aspinall, all of that while not giving up to his demands...the UFC owns the title and his contract.

PS: Is he the first to take so much time off from an eye poke? or time off at all blaming it on the eye poke, i think Namajunas recently posted she was going into eye surgery, yet she finished the fight, one of the most "flimsy", for lack of a better word, mental health fighters, she finished the fight, scheduled eye surgery like a week after.

Yeah, Rose kinda hilariously pulled his card with that quick surgery/1 min vid about the surgery.

For her of all people to handle it with such composure, it did kinda show him up by comparison lol. Unintentionally funny af

 

[fendertach]

Aspinall should be extremely thankful Jones elected not to fight him. If Ganes causing him life altering damage from one eye poke, I cringe at the thought of what Jones would have done to his poor whittle eyeballs.

 

[CombatCyborg]

How was he treated like shit?

Part of it is explained in the comment you replied to, and the rest is obvious if you haven't been living under a rock for the last couple years.