Hot Take Do you still think Aspinall would beat Jones?

[m249viking]

Tom is especially vulnerable to eye pokes, Jones is the goat eye poker.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

The sad reality is that Tom never stood a chance against Jones. All the Jones haters latched onto Tom as the guy who would beat Jon, but there is nothing to suggest Tom is on Jon’s level. He’s still the best example that the Jones haters have, though, because the fight will never happen. People can pretend forever that Tom is somehow Jon’s kryptonite because they can never truly be proven wrong.

You narrative makes no sense. Jon clearly didn't think it was so easy or he takes the big bag of cash, destroys Tom and then gets his wish for another easy money fight against Alex.

Jon's nuthuggers will continue with the narrative that the match up isn't worth his time and beneath him. AJ just beat the shit out of Jake Paul who was beneath him by a million miles. Money talks and Jon paid $30 Million to not have to fight Tom so I will take Jon's actions and inactions to mean more then what we hypothetically think happens in a fight that will never happen.

 

[AstralPanda]

Jones not fighting him had nothing to do with ducking him for his skills.

When you get to that age, you look for legacy fights, money, an opponent with accolades that gets you motivated to run at 4am during a time when you're probably struggling to keep doing this.

The twilight of a fighters career is when they're least likely to just fight anyone, you want someone who checks all the boxes.

When you're someone like Jones who spent your entire career at the top, there's always the next contender who was supposedly the guy to beat him. A fighter who was praised to the moon, only to be dropped by fans shortly after and then a new guy took their place.

He's seen so many of these guys come and go.

And I think that weighs on your motivation. It's why so many of his fights at the end of his LHW run were just him going through the motions. In many ways, Tom sort of represents what he left LHW to get away from.

Money is great but at that age, if you can't find an opponent that truly excites you, you shouldn't be fighting. That's what a lot of people don't understand.

When you're in that position, you've already secured your spot in history with nothing left to prove and you want opponents who have accolades. Other legends, big names, guys who've stood the test of time, guys who get you truly excited or can put on the biggest possible event, rather than just the next guy in line within the linear ranking system.

 

[AstralPanda]

i just wanted to see Jones vs live HWs. Gane shit the bed, and Stipe was ancient. Jones not wanting to fight Tom is understandable. even though he is a steroid cheat and all that, i don't really care about that. the problems i have is holding the belt hostage for nothing and when people automatically dismiss challenges over assumed outcomes and pretend like everything is a foregone conclusion. i'm dumb, i MUST see it to believe it. you have to prove it, you can't just say "Jones is the best ever, his skill on paper is better than ALL the HWS" meanwhile in MMA we've seen dozens and dozens of times that skill means a lot but not EVERYTHING. especially at HW where everyone is 1 punch away from a win.

the other thing is, if it's so easy why isn't he just running through the division like diarrhea? why is he carefully selecting his opponents? why did he take like a decade to move up? seems to me the fans have more faith in Jon winning than Jon does.

Understand that all fighters become selective when they're at the end of their careers. This is something we've seen throughout all of combat sports history.

Mighty mouse and Poirier are examples of guys who have also said they're not coming back unless its against an opponent that truly excites them, regardless of the money.

If you truly study Jon's career and variation of ability shown in his performances, he's had motivation issues for a long time, and lot of fights where we seen him go through the motions like it was another day at the office.

Which spawned his move up to HW to begin with. Bigger names, bigger fights, more money, another mountain to climb and legacy to gain.

Was Tom truly an opponent that truly checks those boxes, motivates him to train and perform at his absolute best? Will it bring out the version of Jones that trains and performs like he's up against DC?

 

[Lee Danger]

i don't want to play devil's advocate but it's amazing how there are still people that compare an almost retired Jones to a younger, prime Aspinall.

btw old Jones > Aspinall

i'm sure that Jones in hindsight realized that he made a mistake and that he overrated Tom's chances.

 

[Last Falconry]

yes, obviously

 

[traditionally_irreverent]

Aspinall is just another good heavyweight, that was never any good.

 

[orca]

I think he would. There's a reason why Jones rarely accepts fights from guys with big KO power.

But Jones being Jones, he'd likely poke the shit out of Tom's eyes then piss hot afterwards, so we'd be cheated out of a real outcome.

everybody has a chance to beat jones
even jones said this a long time ago

but its his job to make that chances really low

"rarely accepts fights from guys with big KO power."
shogun rua -
rashad evans
rampage jackson
daniel cormier
stipe miocic
trt juiced to the gills vitor belfort

rashad evans alone has a 1 shot ko power with superb wrestling
remember young ryan bader knocking anyone out before?


"But Jones being Jones, he'd likely poke the shit out of Tom's eyes then piss hot afterwards, so we'd be cheated out of a real outcome"
tell me how many pokes in jones 17 title wins ended in pokes ?

you havent seen a jones fight do you? i bet you dont watch his fights
just hear news because you know hes gonna win everytime lmao

 

[TJH Exitium]

Jones is a better wrestler and has been dominant against high level grapplers. He's shown that he can take anyone down if he wants them down.
He's also never been rocked or wobbled, even against some dangerous strikers. And he has been hit a couple times.
Jon is very tricky and creative which makes him hard to hit.. but he does get hit every now and then


Aspinall could be called a 'one trick pony' because all we've seen from him recently are blitz attacks and fast knockouts...
There are big question marks about how good Aspinall's wrestling and grappling are because he hasn't gone there since his amateur days.
You could definitely argue that Aspinall is much faster than Jones, and he does have the kind of power that means one hit is all it would take...

I say there's a realistic-but-not-high chance of Aspinall catching Jones with a damaging shot early, and that's what I would be hoping for if they did/do fight
I would never bet money against Jones in the fight, but I would be hopefully optimistic of Aspinall's chances

If you put a gun to my head and said I had to put money on it, I would have to bet on Jones - if only because he's shown over and over that he can find ways to win.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Jones not fighting him had nothing to do with ducking him for his skills.

When you get to that age, you look for legacy fights, money, an opponent with accolades that gets you motivated to run at 4am during a time when you're probably struggling to keep doing this.

The twilight of a fighters career is when they're least likely to just fight anyone, you want someone who checks all the boxes.

When you're someone like Jones who spent your entire career at the top, there's always the next contender who was supposedly the guy to beat him. A fighter who was praised to the moon, only to be dropped by fans shortly after and then a new guy took their place.

He's seen so many of these guys come and go.

And I think that weighs on your motivation. It's why so many of his fights at the end of his LHW run were just him going through the motions. In many ways, Tom sort of represents what he left LHW to get away from.

Money is great but at that age, if you can't find an opponent that truly excites you, you shouldn't be fighting. That's what a lot of people don't understand.

When you're in that position, you've already secured your spot in history with nothing left to prove and you want opponents who have accolades. Other legends, big names, guys who've stood the test of time, guys who get you truly excited or can put on the biggest possible event, rather than just the next guy in line within the linear ranking system.

Biggest crock of shit narrative. Jon's Legacy as a HW is paper thin. He beats a perfect style match up in Gane. A guy who literally had no path to victory. Gane's best chance at a win over Jon was a DQ for an eye poke or knee to a clearly downed opponent. He was never getting a KO as he has no power. He was never going to get to a decision and win, he has ZERO chance. Stipe would have been a great name on Jon's resume had Jon simply moved up when he was done at LHW. No need for this 3 year weight gain BS when the difference in weight was exactly the same as their weights when Jon was 222 lbs in the cage at LHW and Stipe was 233 lbs against DC.

Beating an active actual HW beast in his prime and unifying the titles would have cemented his Legacy. Instead he will always be the guy who ran away from the fight. He didn't retire, he was back in the testing pool before he could even pulse FFS. Alex adds nothing to Jon's Legacy but he started begging for that fight even before he got stripped. Fighting Tom and losing would have added more to his Legacy then Ducking him and staying (Virtually) undefeated.

Add to the fact you say money is a motive and your narrative cracks even more. Jon basically paid $30M to not fight Tom but the cost is actually more. He lost his title, loses huge money in sponsors as he is less valuable when not a UFC champpion and lost the Alex fight.
Even if they were to fight Alex vs Jon is so tarnished with Jon dropping the HW title for refusing to fight. Further add that the UFC won't book him and certainly won't have to pay him as much for any proposed Alex fight if they did book it as he is now begging for it when the UFC were the ones begging him to just Unify.

Had Jon fought Tom and won he gets $30M, maybe the same to fight Alex and add in whatever sponsorship money he has lost and he left $60 + Million on the table. But you are right not enough motivation.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Put it this way, Aspinall vs prime Travis Browne is a coin flip.

 

[650lb Sumo]

Jon would leave Thomas with a golden retreiver's lead in one hand and a white cane in the other.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

Aspinall has monster power but sloppy defense and he's fragile. Jones will be careful enough to avoid the early power and stop him by the 4th.

Jones has done nothing at HW to make one think he would be capable of that.
He smoked Gane in a minute and it took him 4 rounds to beat a newly returned to consciousness, one entire presidential term retired Stipe.

Even in the Gane fight I noticed Jon was much slower than before on the feet.
Everyone noticed he slowed down in his last two LHW fights which is why despite his opponents not being his "toughest" on paper, Reyes and Santos took it further to Jones than many of his previous opponents, with half the community and more thinking he lost the reyes fight (he did, Reyes 1-3).

Yes, definitely.


And so does Jones.

There is no other reason for a man to deny $30 million to fight another man outside of thinking he will lose as a fucking prizefighter.

Took him years to "bulk up" just in time as Francis left with Jon strolling in with a beer belly lol
Didn't take his shirt off on social media for a year because he knew.

 

[prime_lobov]

You narrative makes no sense. Jon clearly didn't think it was so easy or he takes the big bag of cash, destroys Tom and then gets his wish for another easy money fight against Alex.

Jon's nuthuggers will continue with the narrative that the match up isn't worth his time and beneath him. AJ just beat the shit out of Jake Paul who was beneath him by a million miles. Money talks and Jon paid $30 Million to not have to fight Tom so I will take Jon's actions and inactions to mean more then what we hypothetically think happens in a fight that will never happen.

I don’t have a narrative. I can’t prove you wrong since Jones and Aspinall will never fight, which is exactly the point I was making. My opinion is that Jones is the goat, nobody’s ever beat him except via DQ. So I have no reason to believe Tom would beat him, especially now that Tom has quit to eyepokes, which are Jones’ specialty.

 

[Thy]

i didn't before honestly, but i do now. Since gettin a stink finger in the eye, i think he's gonna come back hating eyepokers more than ever and wanna slaughter them.

 

[mantis_fist]

Lol fuck no

 

[JoeBobbaLou2]

No way

 

[Ares Black]

Yes, obviously

 

[Aluminati]

If he couldn't take Gane's dirty butt finger in his eye, there's no chance he would have survived against the eye poke goat.

 

[beater81]

Jones in my opining easily defeats Tom just by utilizing his superior fight IQ.