Is Jon Jones legacy ruined by the Tom Aspinall ducking debacle?

[Takes Two To Tango]

Now that it's over and Jones finally gave in and retired. It's time to move on for bigger and better things.

However do you think Jones Legacy was damaged by his refusal to fight Aspinall the #1 contender and HW interim title holder?

I believe it has a bit. Although, I still think Jones is #3 in the GOAT rankings.

But it's hard to deny the negative after taste of his departure from the sport.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

Somewhat. For the more hardcore fans yes. Casual fans don't really care.

 

[Jon's Drug Dealer]

• Went 5 full rounds against Anthony Smith and failed to finish him.
• Went to a razor-close split decision against an injured (coming into the fight, injured himself further throwing a kick mid-fight) Thiago Santos that could've gone either way.
• Outright lost to Dominick Reyes.
• Ducked Ngannou, sat out for years and then immediately booked a fight when Ngannou left.
• Fought the mummified remains of Stipe Miocic, then retired to get out of having to fight Tom Aspinall in the ultimate duck move.

Combine that with his relevant record primarily consisting of beating fighters significantly older than him and you can really trigger his fandrones.

 

[Tibbles]

The last few years leave a sour taste but he was pretty terrifying in the first half of his career. Quick, explosive, nasty ground and pound, fingers fully extended towards the eyes, teep kicks to the knees and 84.5" reach. Not to mention the pulsing picograms. Jones back then was basically unstoppable, even if most of his opponents were at the end of their careers.

 

[bjjwar]

Yes, but not only, its everything, the lawsuits, the multiple cheating, beating his wife, ducking, fighting old washed 90 yr old MW’s or a retired old dude that got KO’ed 4 yrs ago as a champ. Jones career is just a mess, from start to finish, just a pure sh**show. Ducking the interim champ for a year, retiring with a chatgpt speech on his phone with a lawsuit at the samz time is like the perfect ending to show how bad Jones legacy is lol.

 

[Luffy]

Not at all. He was already the goat after he beat Gane. He further cemented it by dominating Stipe. 80% of pro fighters would always say he is the goat and doesn't need to fight Tom. JJ said he told the UFC his plans and that the UFC knew everything going on but decided not to tell. That is, the UFC, Tom and Jon all profited over you guys marketing it heavily even tho all of them knee it wasn't gonna happen. The fans are fools , the fighters are brave and they all laugh at those comments.


But... When JJ is shown having his win over Tom, then his legacy will get a slight to somewhat bump, but it won't change his most dominant UFC fighter status either way. But I'll for sure he a nice cherry on top.

 

[Davidjacksonjones]

I wouldn't say ruined, but tainted for sure
People will remember the bad in his career like the drug test fails and francis/tom ducks

I think his resume at LHW is untouchable, but at heavyweight not fighting the interim champion wasn't a very good look

End of the day he is still a phenomenal fighter whose demons and inner struggles made him somewhat a villain. He won't be remembered fondly by the fans like gsp and fedor. I have been reading social media comments on his retirements and the comments are like 90 percent negative

 

[SamuraiBro]

Nah, Tom did good by ducking Jones

 

[rear naked ankle pick]

Nah, Tom did good by ducking Jones

 

[kuroro]

• Went 5 full rounds against Anthony Smith and failed to finish him.

he fucking crucified him. one of the worst beatings in UFC history. way to not even give Smith credit for being a goat punching bag.

 

[sickness666]

I voted yes, it has.
But we will only know in a few years how it plays out.
Whether his in-cage accomplishments outweigh this or whether he's being judged for his out-of-cage actions, no one can say yet.

The consensus comparison would be GSP or Fedor. They'll always be on most best-of-all-time lists. Their legacy is set in stone. That's easy, since these two never had JBJ's problems outside of the cage. And the few who see it differently are negligible.

I have my doubts about JBJ on this point. And that's probably mainly due to PEDs, as much as I hate to bring that up again.

 

[Michael Wetzel]

Aspinall was a high risk, low reward fight for Jones. He is not a draw, and would not have made Jones much money. Jones is only interested in big paydays. Francis would be high risk, high reward. Alex would be low risk, high reward. Stipe was low risk, low reward.

 

[Darkavius]

I don't have Jones in the GOAT conversation imo. He is the best Light Heavyweight ever but not in the GOAT conversation at all. I'm sorry but you can't duck Aspinall, Ngannou and Heavyweight DC. Now that we can look back on it his resume after 2015 is not good.

 

[Poirierfan]

Now that it's over and Jones finally gave in and retired. It's time to move on for bigger and better things.

However do you think Jones Legacy was damaged by his refusal to fight Aspinall the #1 contender and HW interim title holder?

I believe it has a bit. Although, I still think Jones is #3 in the GOAT rankings.

But it's hard to deny the negative after taste of his departure from the sport.

Like I've stated previously, Jon ruined his legacy on his own far before Tom.

 

[Vehap1]

He wanted nothing to do with Reyes rematch, after getting destroyed for 3 rounds
Wanted nothing to do with prime Stipe because "he wasnt a draw"

Had to take steroids to fight midgets

Its not a very good look for the sport to have a "GOAT" who ducks everyone and abuse underground steroids

 

[Contempt]

To sherdoggers maybe... everyone else will just see his amazing record.

 

[OverhandLoop]

Between this and the steroids, absolutely.

 

[Ginja_Ninja]

It absolutely did but he has done many other things to ruin it as well.

 

[Starman]

His legacy was ruined by PED usage.

 

[dogsdonutsdragons]

he could have retired pre covid and would have still been goat. this has to be a bot thread. you really have to be an idiot at this point to think jon jones would duck tom.