I'm coming in hot.

[The J0ker]

Jones does not want to defend against any hungry new contender, so they either give him the Stipe fight or see him retire. They chose the former because money. It’s unfortunately not that uncommon to see deserving contenders being passed over in favor of money-making fights.

Now what makes this case special is that Aspinall has an interim belt, but the only reason the UFC let him fight for one in the first place is that they wanted to keep a HW title fight on the UFC 295 card even after Jones pulled out. So they wanted the high profile of an interim title fight but without the stakes usually attached to such a fight, namely the winner becoming the undeniable #1 contender. It’s essentially a case of wanting to eat the cake and have it too.

 

[Tweak896]

I think if Aspinall defends a bunch of times then maybe they'll put him in, but he has to make a name for himself to be worth booking over Stipe.

 

[AmonTobin]

The MMA Guru has a really funny video on the Aspinall-Jones shenanigans. He's even more outraged about it than I am. It had me in stitches. Aspinall is getting royally fucked over here.

 

[NoSmilez]

He has two retired guys that just want to face each other. We aren't getting another fight.

 

[Istryker]

In the old days interim champs defended their belt seperate. At some point the UFC abandoned that whole concept but it was a real thing.

When was that ?

 

[ferrisjso]

When was that ?

Old times like the early 2010s. There was once this guy called Barao.