I don't know if Tom Aspinall really wants to fight JJ

[Luffy]

Luffy with the daily rage-bait.

Nah, if you think that was a rage bait, you have only read the title. I never said anything about Tom losing to Jon Jones, or about Tom being afraid of JJ. The thread had nothing to do with it.

 

[World eater]

Nah, you guys are such assholes!!

Probably. Anyway, I sort of understand you. Since Jones fights once in a blue moon, you just have too much time on your hands to kill. Also, since most people here dislike Jones, you have to jump through loops to keep these threads coming.

To quote Dark Helmet from Spaceballs again: “ I knew it, I’m surrounded by assholes. Keep firing, assholes!”

 

[Luffy]

Probably. Anyway, I sort of understand you. Since Jones fights once in a blue moon, you just have too much time on your hands to kill. Also, since most people here dislike Jones, you have to jump through loops to keep these threads coming.

To quote Dark Helmet from Spaceballs again: “ I knew it, I’m surrounded by assholes. Keep firing, assholes!”

Nah, JJ is saying he would give Pereira the opportunity — that is, he'd risk it all by not caring too much if he lost as he likes Pereira. With Tom, he won't even give him the opportunity, meaning, he will fight with all he has and smash him completely. So he'll be someone who was "hot" today and "Go(a)ne" tomorrow, which happens to most opponents after they lose to JJ. That's why JJ said later that Tom is just another Anthony Smith or Dominick Reyes — meaning, like Smith and Reyes, will lose his aura and look meh after Jon Jones has beat his ass.

Tbh tho JJ got asked whether he really thinks he beats Tom and said: "For sure. The night we fought he would be 15 lb heavier than me, 6 years younger and I will just whip his ass like I've done everyone else. You can all believe in the hype and I will keep winning"

He also said before the Stipe fight in an interview : "The Stipe fight most people aren't interested in, but for the hardcore fans, and people who really understand MMA like experienced coaches and heavy analysts, they know he is would be a difficult fight to Tom. And my prediction is that I will beat Stipe, my prediction is that I'll beat Aspinall and then Francis Ngannou" ... Ngannou was even there at the moment as it was an interview in Saudi Arabia with the shakes, and laughed with his sunglasses on saying "in your dream!" ...

JJ had also said in an interview that whether he would keep fighting or not would depend on if he could make the Miocic fight look easy. If he could easily beat Stipe, then his curiosity would keep him in the game and have possibly 3 more fights, to see how far he can go. He had said in a podcast that he was interested in facing Tom, but he wants that to be looked as a fight that Tom is recognized for how good he is, otherwise according to JJ, his win would be just discredited again. And he said that after defeating Cyril Gane and if he can dominate and beat Stipe before the championship, he would fight worth contenders because he can. He said he has been blessed with a huge talent that he could become much better even by training hard for 3 years and studying the game, that he wants to break through limits because he feels he can... And wants to leave these achievements as an obligation to those who unfortunately haven't this talent.

 

[Steve Fox]

Actually I am new. I created it many years ago but I started posting last year. I'd post rarely before, like, 10 posts in a year or so...

10 posts too many.

 

[JustforBROCK]

Look, I don't question that under a "Tom doesn't think he can defeat Jon Jones, he is scared" lens... nothing like that.

But I say this because I think that ideally, he would rather not have to fight Jon Jones. After the JJ-Stipe fight, in an interview with Ariel, Tom Aspinall said some things that make me believe he'd rather not be in a position to be the one to fight Jon Jones. He said:

"Honestly speaking, it would be hard to find someone who's a bigger fan of Jon Jones than I am. And one message I'd like to give to all the 'online experts' is for them to worry about other things and stop talking about what I should do, about how I should act, that I should trash talk Jon Jones and hype the fight. I respect Stipe and Jon Jones a lot, so I won't act in ways that are not aligned to who I am" .

Recently, he said:

"I don't need to fight Jon Jones. The UFC said my next opponent is Jon Jones, but I don't know why the UFC wants for me to be the one to fight Jon Jones so badly..."

IMO, it's because the odd makers, the match makers, see that the other top fighters like Ankalaev and Poatan (very likely, the strongest ones after JJ and Tom) are not likely to be a big threat to Jon Jones. I think that hypothetical odds see both Ankalaev or Pereira vs JJ roughly the same, odds wise, as the Stipe vs Jon Jones fight. When analysing the fights, the possibility in the outcome of a clash between Ankalaev and Jones in hypothetical odds was seen to go more like Stipe vs Jones. So for a greedy business company like the UFC, they don't want for a champion, that champion being the most dominant of the UFC, to retire on top, beating the top fighters. Ideally, they'd match a JJ who has never lost and is about to retire vs a fighter who they see as the one who has a big enough likelihood of defeating him, hoping that such happens. If JJ wins and retire, that'd take somewhat of the hype of the remaining fighters. And even with Tom, the odds are 50/50 ...

But Tom doesn't seem like someone who wants to go after Jon Jones in a way that McGregor would call out opponents, like when he was about to face Jose Aldo. You'd imagine that he'd be way more disgusted of Jon Jones. I think the trolling JJ videos with ducks, buying JJ's t shirts, and memes were his ways of hyping it up all while keeping it respectful in a way, because, as he said, he respects Jon Jones a lot, sees Jon Jones as the fighter that to him, is "the closest someone can be to perfection as a fighter" and won't take online "experts" opinions into account, since he knows what is going, respects Jon Jones and is a huge fan of him. He sees the fight as important in terms of money and the possibility to face the best fighter and if he wins, to keep the hype of a new generation, but deep down, he respects Jon Jones a lot and understands the situation Jon Jones is in as well... They both seem to understand each other's situation and role. It appears that Tom holds way more of a grudge the UFC, as a whole. As for Jon Jones, even when asked recently to describe fighters in one word associations, Tom refers to JJ as "legend". He likes JJ, is a fan of him and doesn't want to badmouth him or anything like that. He even said that:

"It's curious because Jon Jones vs Stipe was happening in the USA but many fans were calling my name and boo'ing JJ vs Stipe, with all they represent in MMA. I can say for sure that it would never, never in a million years happen in the UK, to have fans chanting the name of a foreign fighter instead of some prolific MMA fighter from the UK. In the USA though, it's interesting how fans act. "

This sounds insanely stupid.

 

[Evbo]

LOL of course the only like on the OP is @AndrewGolota48