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We know that it won't be by fighting Tom Aspinall. He's way too 'smart' for that because no amount of money is worth getting KTFO live on international TV. He knows that, he won't do it. Call it pride, call it goat shit, call it whatever you want but at this point we know that's not happening.
So that leaves two options. As Mike Tyson would say, he's only got two options, he can get stripped, he can retire, or he can wait and get stripped.
Jon Jones has already been stripped of the LHW belt three times which must be another record that he holds. In 2015, 2016, and then again in 2017 he was stripped of the belt mainly for steroids and performance enhancing drugs, but also for running a red light, striking the car of a pregnant woman and, instead of making sure she was ok, grabbing his money and drugs, hopping a fence, and disappearing into the surrounding hills. He was apprehended the next day and after some deliberation, the UFC stripped him of his belt for violating the personal conduct policy.
So the last option? Retirement. He has threatened retirement a couple times but could never bring himself to do it. The first time was after the first Ngannou debacle. Ngannou had just knocked Rozenstruik into a different dimension so of course Jon immediately took to twitter proclaiming the HW division to be complete shit. He said 'this is the best they have?'. Frank, not amused, replied that they should settle that assertion inside the Octagon. Thus began a few weeks of circus events with Dana trying to actually put the fight together and Jones furiously backpedaling and desperately trying to find a way out, without looking like a complete pussy. He decided that if he asked for an astronomical sum of money, that the UFC would never pay, he could then claim he was all ready to fight Francis but the UFC couldn't pay him. Dana was having none of that and went public, calling him "scared" and characterizing his demands as "Deontay Wilder Money". Wilder had just fought for 30 million. Jones, humiliated by getting exposed in his scheme then went scorched earth saying he quit and would never fight in the UFC again and everyone would miss him. It was a couple weeks later that he decided that quitting was a rash idea and said that he had actually planned on dropping the belt to move to HW. Three years later...he promised to retire after putting a beatdown on retired firefighter Stipe Miocic rather than fighting the interim champ Aspinall. Everyone tried to justify it by saying, "Oh it's his last fight, so what, let him do it, he's the goat, he deserves it, let him have his legacy fight" or whatever but predictably he didn't retire and he didn't give up the belt either.
So what do you think? Is he going to finally step down and end his career while a bit of dignity is still possible or will he clutch his final belt to his chest like Gollum and refuse to let go until the inevitable happens again?
So that leaves two options. As Mike Tyson would say, he's only got two options, he can get stripped, he can retire, or he can wait and get stripped.
Jon Jones has already been stripped of the LHW belt three times which must be another record that he holds. In 2015, 2016, and then again in 2017 he was stripped of the belt mainly for steroids and performance enhancing drugs, but also for running a red light, striking the car of a pregnant woman and, instead of making sure she was ok, grabbing his money and drugs, hopping a fence, and disappearing into the surrounding hills. He was apprehended the next day and after some deliberation, the UFC stripped him of his belt for violating the personal conduct policy.
So the last option? Retirement. He has threatened retirement a couple times but could never bring himself to do it. The first time was after the first Ngannou debacle. Ngannou had just knocked Rozenstruik into a different dimension so of course Jon immediately took to twitter proclaiming the HW division to be complete shit. He said 'this is the best they have?'. Frank, not amused, replied that they should settle that assertion inside the Octagon. Thus began a few weeks of circus events with Dana trying to actually put the fight together and Jones furiously backpedaling and desperately trying to find a way out, without looking like a complete pussy. He decided that if he asked for an astronomical sum of money, that the UFC would never pay, he could then claim he was all ready to fight Francis but the UFC couldn't pay him. Dana was having none of that and went public, calling him "scared" and characterizing his demands as "Deontay Wilder Money". Wilder had just fought for 30 million. Jones, humiliated by getting exposed in his scheme then went scorched earth saying he quit and would never fight in the UFC again and everyone would miss him. It was a couple weeks later that he decided that quitting was a rash idea and said that he had actually planned on dropping the belt to move to HW. Three years later...he promised to retire after putting a beatdown on retired firefighter Stipe Miocic rather than fighting the interim champ Aspinall. Everyone tried to justify it by saying, "Oh it's his last fight, so what, let him do it, he's the goat, he deserves it, let him have his legacy fight" or whatever but predictably he didn't retire and he didn't give up the belt either.
So what do you think? Is he going to finally step down and end his career while a bit of dignity is still possible or will he clutch his final belt to his chest like Gollum and refuse to let go until the inevitable happens again?
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