Do you believe Jon Jones is obligated to fight Tom Aspinall?

[otis604]

Jones is not obligated to do anything. If his contract required a fight against Aspinall, it would have already happened. Blame the UFC. They stripped Germaine de Randamie after just four months for refusing to fight Cris Cyborg. UFC have the power; they simply choose not to use it and Aspinall is paying the price

 

[Crash Lance]

Jones is not obligated to do anything. If his contract required a fight against Aspinall, it would have already happened. Blame the UFC. They stripped Germaine de Randamie after just four months for refusing to fight Cris Cyborg. UFC have the power; they simply choose not to use it and Aspinall is paying the price

It's 2025. To this day, there have never been MMA fights between Germaine de Randamie and Cristiane Justino.

In this example, Germaine de Randamie would be Jon Jones and Cristiane Justino is Tom Aspinall.

Germaine de Randamie is the assassin that was ducking (and is still ducking) Cristiane Justino. Cristiane Justino was more than willing to go against Germaine de Randamie. She said it many times.

Jon Jones is the assassin that was ducking (and is still ducking) Tom Aspinall. Tom Aspinall was more than willing (and he's still more than willing) to have MMA fights against Jon Jones.

mkess101, are you reading these messages? Can you fathom why anyone would even think about Tom Aspinall being stripped?

I can't believe my eyes. Why are there users in this thread that are saying that Tom Aspinall might be stripped?

Tom Aspinall being stripped is the epitome of insanity and Federal Crimes.



@mkess101

@italiamusica

 

[g*r*b]

Jones is not obligated to fight Aspinall, because nobody can be forced to fight. Every fighter has the right of refusal for a match.

Of course, those saying "no" risk all sorts of devious reprisals by the UFC. And a champ saying "no" will get his belt yanked off him. Even Conor at the height of his stardom.

So while Jones as a person isn't obligated, the heavyweight champ IS. If he wants to stay known as that, whip out the pen and sign a contract then.

 

[Luffy]

Who? What insider sources are saying they're gonna strip Aspinall and jump someone else over him for the next title fight vs Jones. Do tell about this speculation from "people in the org". Because it sounds like you are completely full of shit. Please enlighten us as to who would fight Jones next for the belt.

Are you addicted to fabricating shit? Hey, I can do that too!

According to random "UFC people", there's speculation that Jon Jones is gonna leave the UFC to focus on his career as a drag queen. I mean, who knows? It's just "speculation" after all!

Uncle Chael Sonnen.


Btw whatever. I don't think we are getting that fight anyways. Sometimes I think we will, sometimes it seems we won't. Who cares anyways. I think the most likely is that JJ retired already. He sent a picture of him holding a GOAT and it read like a farewell message. Tom Aspinall will likely fight Gane for the undisputed next. They won't announce JJ was stripped I guess to still attract more to Aspinall vs Gane. But it will be for the undisputed.

It makes no difference to announce a belt was vacated or not to the audience. If Tom knows he's fighting Cyril for the undisputed, then that's what matters. JJ was hinting already in his messages and things he sent that he was done, the UFC seems to be choosing not to make it public to grab into some potential JJ vs Tom hype yet.

But yeah. I'm fine either way. JJ retired on top, unbeaten. It's cool. From the start he showed no signs of wanting to fight Tom I guess. Those were true signs I think. But I'd imagine the UFC knew he'd going to retire and kept that kinda act and all to get more attention with the ambiguity when seeing Tom vs Gane, with ppl "ohh another defense, let's go there root for Tom and curse Jon!" and then Buffer says "for the undisputed championship!!" and ppl all woohhh so JJ really retired after Stipe....

 

[Luffy]

Rather, they couldn't even strip JJ... Aspinall kept the interim belt, which is not possible when there is an undisputed champion. As per the rules of the words,you cannot have an interim champion with an undisputed champion. That is, Aspinall was no longer interim champion as soon as JJ vs Stipe started... Then IMO seeing the whole scenario in a broader way now, it's way more likely that they knew JJ was retiring, JJ knew too. But they arranged a way for him to keep a potential fight with Tom hanging as a way to, I guess, give more visibility whenever Tom fights again, only then it'll be revealed that JJ defended vs Stipe, retired and the undisputed belt will be decided with Tom vs Gane.

In any case, Tom would likely know about the JJ fight not happening either, that's why he slowly stopped talking about JJ. He'll say it here and then though just for WWE effect, for marketing and visibility, since now that JJ retired, Tom is kinda alone there... There's Gane, but someone with a big potential and a star level would need to show up there in HW.

 

[fzoid4454]

You're not serious, are you? I can't imagine that any of your posts are serious.

Tom Aspinall won MMA fights on July 27, 2024. In my opinion, the only reason that this MMA fight happened is because Jones was (and still is) escaping from Tom Aspinall.

Today is April 28, 2025. Jones is avoiding Tom Aspinall at this exact second (as I'm typing this message).

No more distractions. Distractions are what I call these MMA fights that Tom Aspinall is accepting.

In my opinion, every time that Tom Aspinall accepts these MMA fights (which are distractions), Tom is doing gargantuan favors for Dana White and the rest of the UFC.

No more granting favors. No more distractions.

No more of Tom being a company man (which he is). No more doing favors.

No more of being a loyal employee (which he is). Tom Aspinall absolutely needs to demand MMA fights against Jones and/or Tom Aspinall absolutely needs to demand MMA fights that are for the Undisputed UFC Heavyweight World Championship.

No more settling. No more compromise.

Tom Aspinall will be mixing it up for the UNDISPUTED UFC Heavyweight World Championship (and only the Undisputed UFC Heavyweight World Championship) and that's that. End of paragraph. End of story.

Otherwise, Tom Aspinall straight-up won't have any more MMA fights. End of sentence. End of story.

Simple as that.



@italiamusica

@mkess101

and Jones won MMA fight November of 2024. Which means he fought and defended his title four months MORE RECENTLY than Aspinall.

Not sure why you talking about Aspinall not fighting somehow leads to Jones being stripped of a title, but basically nothing in the wall of verbal vomit actually refuted anything my very brief comment said.

I was responding to a post that said "if anyone should get stripped, it should be Jones" - and Jones has fought much more recently than Aspinall, which is why no one is getting stripped any time soon.

"Simple as that."

So what would be the basis for stripping Jones of his title?

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

He's not obligated to fight anyone, especially since his original position was that he was probably going to retire after Stipe.

If he does fight, Aspinall is the clear contender he should fight.

Having said that, the UFC has the first obligation to compensate the participants accordingly. If they don't make it a high reward for the ultimate risk, he's ethically free to fight a lesser person if the compensation is commensurate with a lesser challenge.

There are a lot of moving parts and a lot of different parties who all have obligations to make this happen. It's not a simple binary "yes/no," but I understand that this is Sherdog, so dumbing-down is usually necessary.

Very well said, thanks.

 

[fzoid4454]

Buddy, what you seem to not understand apparently is that they lose MORE credibility if they don't figure out how to get Jones to fight Aspinall but then allow him to defend vs someone else. So quite frankly, YES, the UFC will just "walk away" from him. They don't have years and years of Jones headlining ppv cards left, and even if they did they have made it abundantly clear over the years that NO fighter is bigger than the brand. Not even Conor who blew Jones away in terms of leverage and drawing power. They let their undisputed HW champ walk over money. They aren't gonna sacrifice the integrity of the division for years and years to appease Jones for one fight where he "isn't getting paid enough to fight the interim champ but will take a bit less to defend vs a lesser guy". That just isn't gonna happen.

But I'll tell ya what: if somehow they jump someone over Aspinall for the next title shot vs Jones and it's due to money and not injury or something like that, I'll fully admit how wrong I was. But it's not gonna happen because I live in reality.

Buddy, I do seem to understand that. Yes, they probably DO lose more credibility, so there is pressure on them to actually pony up and pay, commensurate to what athletes in similar sports make for similar level title fights (not raw dollars, but as a percentage of the money generated overall). They lose just as much credibility if they keep losing their legitimate champs who get there without having an "interim" belt conjured out of the bullshit ether, because they refuse to pay them as champs.

So, as I said, it's complicated with a lot of moving parts, so your pretense that it's just some take it or leave it, out of the gate, with Jones having an obligation to take it, and the UFC not having an obligation to do their part because "they can do what they want" is absolutely dumbing it down.

They jumped other people over the top contenders plenty of times when fights can't come together. Look at the long, long list of champion fights where the guy competing for the belt is not the #1 contender, and they get to arbitrarily declare who the #1 contender is.

But, since we're talking about living in reality, let's get rid of the nonsense about a champ being stripped of the belt when he just fought a few months ago. The actual belt was just defended. The division is not on hold.

 

[AstralPanda]

It's not that. It the whole "he's holding up the division because he's inactive" nonsense. He tore a pectoral. Everyone wanted the Stipe fight to happen sooner. Training injuries are part of the sport. It's not like he pulled a Conor McGregor.

It's also not just Jones involved. It's a negotiation between the champ, who DOES have a say in the matter and the promotion, who has to pay the fighters their fair share of generating the excitement that generates the revenue.

It's perfectly normal for a fight to take several months to come together.

The rare completely rational post here

 

[AstralPanda]

That's not how the UFC works with standard "will be fighting anywhere on the card" contracts. It absolutely is when dealing with a champion and the top of a PPV card.

I'm talking about if the money isn't right for the Aspinall fight, but he's willing to fight another contender, does the UFC just walk away from him? Is Aspinall a legitimate champ if the UFC balks on paying championship rates, and then just takes the belt from Jones and hands it to him?

It absolutely IS "dumbing it down." Sure, they have the power to do whatever the fuck they want. They have no credibility as a sports sanctioning body if they do. They're the pinnacle of the sport. Part of that is acting like a professional organization.

They haven't "given Jones all the time he he wants" - because if there's not an acceptable offer on the table, then you can just as easily say Jones has given them all the time they want to make a legit offer.

Like I said, that take is entirely dumbing it down and pretending that everything is from some cookie cutter template where it's just "yes or no."

You have no idea what kind of an offer the UFC has or hasn't made. Unless the fight happens, you never will, because Dana notoriously lies about it. You have no idea what Jones is or isn't demanding.

So you can't make any kind of assessment of whether the time it's taking is "enough" or not.

Unless you want to completely dumb it down.

The all elusive sherdog post that uses critical thinking

It's like a rare animal these days, lol

 

[NoSmilez]

He should but you can't force fighters to fight. If he wants to do a fun fight for his retirement then he should drop the belt.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

If you're the champ, you need to be fighting at least twice a year and against the top challengers. If you fail to meet those standards for more than a year, you should be stripped.

 

[tgv976]

If he still wants to fight yes. If he doesn't, then he should have retired already. But being a head case that loves attention and the spotlight, he's enjoying dragging this out to get more attention while doing nothing but screwing over another fighter's career.

 

[ejazahmednit]

The heavyweight champion is obligated to fight Aspinall since he is the interim champion, currently its Jon Jones ergo vis a vis obligated

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

The heavyweight champion is obligated to fight Aspinall since he is the interim champion, currently its Jon Jones ergo vis a vis obligated

 

[Dogshare]

Except he also said that he agreed the waiting is better for him financially, plus, in that interview, he also said that waiting has favored him because he can do a check up and get to the bottom of his illness that were happening more often... Watch the video, he says all of this. So no, it's not JJ. And yes, it also has to do with the problem regarding his diet implying he is consuming in a daily basis the same amount of calories that he'd burn if he didn't do anything and just laid down for 24h... And then he said he'll need a time to check this diet stuff, be more conscious on to do it the right way. And while it doesn't prove anything regarding PEDs, it's certainly eye opening to some extent, as a 58.2 kilo of only muscle (not other fluids) in a 115.5kg weight weighed first time in the morning all while ingesting half the amount of calories he would burn in a training day? How is that possible?

What does Jones for you that you try to defend him so much? I am just curious.

We all know Tom wants to fight Jones and to get the 'real' belt. He is trying this for a long time while Jones is claiming the fight does nothing for him, he is not interested and it is not smart for him bussiness wise to fight a younger and more heavy opponent. But now you find something about Tom's health and you really believe this is the reason they don't have a fight scheduled yet? And moreso you accuse Tom for using steroids while Jones is the one being caught more than once?

There must be something that makes you completely blind. I have no favorite fighters and just want to see the best fight the best so I am not familiar with the feelings that you must feel for Jones.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Jones' stalling is hurting Aspinall's legacy and his potential career earnings.

It's a dirty tactic.

Aspinall does t have to wait he can just pretend Jones does exist and go on with his title reign.

It'll make Jon look worse and tarnish his rep, while earning money

 

[Ginja_Ninja]

At this point yes.

Jones could vacate but now that he has waited so long, this would 100% be seen as ducking.

 

[The Big Babou]

Aspinall does t have to wait he can just pretend Jones does exist and go on with his title reign.

It'll make Jon look worse and tarnish his rep, while earning money

True, but it's outrageous that he's in this position

I thought the ufc was obligated to offer 3 fights per year to its fighters

 

[mkess101]

Uncle Chael Sonnen.


Btw whatever. I don't think we are getting that fight anyways. Sometimes I think we will, sometimes it seems we won't. Who cares anyways. I think the most likely is that JJ retired already. He sent a picture of him holding a GOAT and it read like a farewell message. Tom Aspinall will likely fight Gane for the undisputed next. They won't announce JJ was stripped I guess to still attract more to Aspinall vs Gane. But it will be for the undisputed.

It makes no difference to announce a belt was vacated or not to the audience. If Tom knows he's fighting Cyril for the undisputed, then that's what matters. JJ was hinting already in his messages and things he sent that he was done, the UFC seems to be choosing not to make it public to grab into some potential JJ vs Tom hype yet.

But yeah. I'm fine either way. JJ retired on top, unbeaten. It's cool. From the start he showed no signs of wanting to fight Tom I guess. Those were true signs I think. But I'd imagine the UFC knew he'd going to retire and kept that kinda act and all to get more attention with the ambiguity when seeing Tom vs Gane, with ppl "ohh another defense, let's go there root for Tom and curse Jon!" and then Buffer says "for the undisputed championship!!" and ppl all woohhh so JJ really retired after Stipe....

Chael randomly spews shit that is almost NEVER even sniffing accuracy. That's not an "insider". That's a former fighter turned tslking head that says things for the SOLE PURPOSE of getting clicks and attention. And it's not even hating on Chael to say that, he'd admit it!

So then you follow with "but whatever". This is your M.O. Drop a steaming turd of a proclamation and then when pressed because it's utter horseshit, you reply with "ahh it doesn't matter". And then 3 paragraphs of your own view on what will happen.
Lame as fuck LOL.