Jon Jones explains himself

[RockyLockridge]

Translation- "No way In hell I'm fighting a big, young, hungry, athletic generational talent like Aspinall who will put me to bed inside a round. That will be horrible for my legacy I won't shut up about.

I'm taking out arthritic old man Stipe who can barely walk without his cane. Calling myself the HW GOAT, then peacing out."

accurate translation

 

[Fight Professor]

Goat lhw, top 3 overall goat

But his HW resume isn't that great. Gane and retired Stipe maybe. Lots of current HW have a better resume at at HW

Where are Gane or Pavlovich fans now? Aspinall is cool until the first loss which could be from Almeida.

Stipe has a proven and is not as risky.

Gane was the young relevant opponent but now he does not count.

 

[linvillegorge]

Fine. Strip him and let the division continue on. He can fight Stipe for his resume without the belt on the line.

 

[Hdfi]

He can fight Stipe without holding the belt hostage.

 

[JoeRowe]

I completely understand. The UFC however need to strip Jon & promote Tom to Undisputed. Let him defend this summer in the UK against Blaydes/Jailton/Gane.

When Jon is healthy him & Stipe can fight for the UFC GOAT belt, or the next iteration of the BMF title. Slap on a cute gimmick & let them retire.

 

[blaseblase]

You're forgetting how insecure Jon is. He jumps into every twitter thread where any no name claims somebody other than him is the GOAT.

He is extremely invested in being seen as the best ever and he doesn't want it to even be a debate in the minds of fans.

In his mind beating the guy who the UFC markets as the HW GOAT does exactly that.

He's already the LHW GOAT. Other guys are GOATs of their own weightclass, other guys have gone up and won a 2nd belt like GSP.

What no GOAT candidate has done though is go up a weightclass and beat the best guy ever in that weightclass. That's what Stipe does for Jones. On paper (and ONLY on paper) he sets Jones apart from the other GOAT candidates.

Except beating Aspinall does more for his legacy than beating a 42 year old Stipe who hasn't fought in 4 years. No one has Stipe on the overall GOAT list. He's UFC HW GOAT solely based on setting the title defense record, not even HW GOAT. Does Jones want to drag Fedor out of retirement as well?

 

[JoeRowe]

Second Twitter comment absolutely nailed it -

"You’re literally trying to fight Stipe Miocic who is one of those other fighters who stuck around too long ."

That's bang on & I am disappointed I didn't think of it myself lol

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

The legacy of beating not-current-champ Stipe did not require the HW belt attached to it, but now it's on the shelf.

But Dana playing by the WWE logic of "We have a belt and we have a star. Why keep those separate so we could have multiple points to sell when we can put our eggs in ONE basket?"

 

[Dr Fong]

yeah he doesnt realize that tom on his resume is way better than stipe

All the morons who think he is playing some sort of 4D 'legacy chess' seem to think everyone is just going to forget that Stipe was 100 years old coming off a 10 year lay off and a KO.

The fact he basically admits it is a cyncial fake legacy ploy, on top of his previous comments about being afraid to fight Francis and even DC at HW doesn't help him either.

Aspinall would be way better for his historical resume as he beat the young official number 1 contender at the time. Even if Aspinall later collapses, nobody will be able to argue that Jones didn't fight the best at the time.

He really should have kept his mouth shut and not outright admitted what he is doing.

 

[OldBoy91]

Except beating Aspinall does more for his legacy than beating a 42 year old Stipe who hasn't fought in 4 years. No one has Stipe on the overall GOAT list. He's UFC HW GOAT solely based on setting the title defense record, not even HW GOAT. Does Jones want to drag Fedor out of retirement as well?

To us yeah. To the average fan who will look up their records years down the line and to casuals who take the UFC marketing machine as gospel? Probably not.

Beating Aspinall would be up there with the most impressive wins of Jones entire career, to those of us that know what we are watching and can see Aspinall is the kind of talent that doesn't come around very often, especially at the heavier weightclasses.

On paper it wouldn't be though, on paper Stipe does more because of what he has achieved and who he has beaten. 15 years from now nobody will care that Stipe was far past his best and couod barely walk let alone fight. Same way people don't care that the Larry Holmes that Mike Tyson beat was a shadow of his prime years.

Moreover, a win over Stipe does for more for Jon's legacy than a LOSS to Aspinall does, and that's the real thing Jones is trying to avoid here.

 

[BabyBlue_Bomber]

Sounds like his next fight could be his last…

If he’s only looking for fights that would add to his legacy, there really isn’t anyone for him to fight outside of Miocic.

 

[blaseblase]

To us yeah. To the average fan who will look up their records years down the line and to casuals who take the UFC marketing machine as gospel? Probably not.

Beating Aspinall would be up there with the most impressive wins of Jones entire career, to those of us that know what we are watching and can see Aspinall is the kind of talent that doesn't come around very often, especially at the heavier weightclasses.

On paper it wouldn't be though, on paper Stipe does more because of what he has achieved and who he has beaten. 15 years from now nobody will care that Stipe was far past his best and couod barely walk let alone fight. Same way people don't care that the Larry Holmes that Mike Tyson beat was a shadow of his prime years.

I dont think that's necessarily true. Do fans today make a big deal about Tito's wins over Ken Shamrock?

 

[OldBoy91]

I dont think that's necessarily true. Do fans today make a big deal about Tito's wins over Ken Shamrock?

No, but Ken is considered more of a pioneer than any kind of GOAT or elite talent. Hell, so it Tito these days for that matter.

Besides, this whole back and forth presupposes that Jon is confident he beats Aspinall. When the reason he wants Stipe so bad is probably precisely because he's confident he beats Stipe but he isn't so sure about beating Tom.

 

[Local Plata]

He wants 40+ year old, coming off a loss, 3 years ago, for his resume. He knows the new base of dumb dumb fans only look at wikipedia fight records and think it will look like a gem on his HW resume.

Whatever. Realistically with wins over Gane/Old Stipe, he will never actually be in the convo for greatest HW of all time except by Dana White and his TV shills. I'm all for Jones getting out on top without taking more damage or fighting way past his prime. You do you, Jon.

 

[greenseeker]

To be fair, Jones is in a spot where any loss hurts his legacy more than whatever Aspinall or other HW's could add, Stipe has his share of loses already, whats one more KO to him.

He's got what, 5 failed drug tests? His resume is irrelevant at this point. You either don't care and think he's the GOAT, or you do care and you think he's a POS.

 

[MEAN357]

Translation- "No way In hell I'm fighting a big, young, hungry, athletic generational talent like Aspinall who will put me to bed inside a round. That will be horrible for my legacy I won't shut up about.

I'm taking out arthritic old man Stipe who can barely walk without his cane. Calling myself the HW GOAT, then peacing out."

Jfc all the sudden aspinall is a world beater when a few months ago that Russian dude was supposed to run him tf over lmao

 

[El Fernas]

He's got what, 5 failed drug tests? His resume is irrelevant at this point. You either don't care and think he's the GOAT, or you do care and you think he's a POS.

Count me with the rest of the industry, he is still the goat.

 

[OldBoy91]

Jfc all the sudden aspinall is a world beater when a few months ago that Russian dude was supposed to run him tf over lmao

Casuals thought that yeah. Not people who know what they're watching.

 

[MEAN357]

Casuals thought that yeah. Not people who know what they're watching.

Lotta fuckin casuals on here lmao.

Idgaf if you love or hate Jones nobody in the sport is walking thru him, he's proved that time and time again. Dudes a piece of shit but he's a one of the most durable fighters in MMA history, easily.

 

[GreatSaintGuillotine]

Then vacate. You're not in this for the belt so give it up. Let Tom take care of his division since you adamantly refuse to fight him