What effect will the Aspinall duck have on JBJ's legacy?

[DougieJones]

Nothing. It's a drop in the bucket of shit that is Jones


His simps will still gurgle him tho

 

[Hymen Crusher]

Jones cheated and lost via DQ. It was a loss. It's an exceptionally valid loss for a fighter with a habit of fouling so bad that it'd make Gilbert Yvel squeamish.

Yes he is a mega cheat but 12 6ers are not eye gouges. We all know that's a dumb ass rule and it shouldn't have existed. I assure you I'm no Jon fan but not all fouls and losses are the same.

 

[joy2day]

Jones cheated and lost via DQ. It was a loss. It's an exceptionally valid loss for a fighter with a habit of fouling so bad that it'd make Gilbert Yvel squeamish.

That's actually a good point. Rampage said he has never poked anyone in the eye in 25 years of training and fighting, and that Jones was the dirtiest opponent he ever fought with the intentional pokes. It isn't shocking Jones would have lost a fight for cheating, and it should be reflected in his record with all of the times he has done it.

 

[Skarsgard]

Yes he is a mega cheat but 12 6ers are not eye gouges. We all know that's a dumb ass rule and it shouldn't have existed. I assure you I'm no Jon fan but not all fouls and losses are the same.

And if it were a one-off where he just slipped up, I'd shrug it off. It wasn't. He just thought it wouldn't be enforced and he paid for it.

 

[whocares]

Jones legacy will be no different than any other great athlete whose career was defined by controversy and cheating, Look em all up and see how time has treated their legacies, all the baseball steroid freaks, Pete Rose's gambling, Lance Armstrong, Michael Vick, even Karl Malone's entire career stands on even ground with the fact that he was an extraordinary deadbeat dad. Damn near anybody who fucked up in any capacity, it never goes away. Long after their careers are over you always see the reformed contrition from these people, asking for forgiveness as old men, many years after anyone else gives a shit about them it still haunts them everywhere. It's sad. The sports world has a code of honor and integrity and whoever breaks those gets the asterisk. That's how it's always worked and always will.

At this point, Jons high profile ducking is historic in the sport. He has literally redefined the genre and made himself the poster boy of running, especially for this part of his career which is turning out ot be a very substantial saga as it has unfolded. Just like the HOF, this segment of Jons career has earned it's own wing of his legacy.

As it stands the only thing he can do to minimize all of this is to fight and beat Aspinall. Getting his ass kicked will just cement his duck era and make it a legendary story that stands on its own. He should've handled this whole thing like a man, let alone an all time great champion. No idea wtf he was thinking.

 

[Hymen Crusher]

And if it were a one-off where he just slipped up, I'd shrug it off. It wasn't. He just thought it wouldn't be enforced and he paid for it.

At that time he had barely started cheating. He wasn't any where near the fully evolved cheater yet. I honestly don't care about that one at all. Other times sure I wish he would lose and he is factually a cheater.

 

[Skarsgard]

At that time he had barely started cheating. He wasn't any where near the fully evolved cheater yet. I honestly don't care about that one at all. Other times sure I wish he would lose and he is factually a cheater.

Don't get me wrong. I could be being completely unfair toward him. I remember thinking he was already on the dirty side going into that and it just confirmed what I'd already believed.

 

[CombatCyborg]

I think to a large extent his legacy is riding on the Aspinall fight. There's been so much shit accumulating throughout Jones's career, the only reason he has the legacy he has is because he was gifted decisions in a couple of fights. That lets him claim he's undefeated. If he was to beat Tom it would shut the door on all of that for good.

But if he were to fight Tom, he would lose, and that would open up the gates for all the shit to flood out and sink his legacy. That's why he won't take the fight IMO. If he bows out now, it keeps his legacy intact because people can always say he didn't duck and he would've beaten Tom.

 

[Feaser]

He should have retired after his 3rd defense. Can’t be accused of ducking an opponent if you duck competition altogether!

 

[tgv976]

Just adds another thing to the list of scumbag behavior. I'm confident he could beat Aspinall if his defensive wrestling can keep him on his feet. Big if, but he'd rather drag this out just to do the most damage to Tom's career and earning potential. This whole process feeds his ego even more knowing he's in complete control of the situation, and the UFC won't strip him since he's one of their last remaining big draws.

 

[Qays Stetkevich]

None at all.

Even if he lost to Aspinall it really wouldn't. He was just old.

disagree.

Also, as a Fedor fan, OF COURSE his legacy was tarnished by losing rather than remaining undefeated. Regarding the duck, though, unless Tom has a helluva reign, no one will remember that Jones ducked this one HW towards the end of his career. They'll just see that long, reigning, undefeated championship run.

 

[Lee Danger]

disagree.

Also, as a Fedor fan, OF COURSE his legacy was tarnished by losing rather than remaining undefeated. Regarding the duck, though, unless Tom has a helluva reign, no one will remember that Jones ducked this one HW towards the end of his career. They'll just see that long, reigning, undefeated championship run.

in order to forget the Aspinall's duck we had to erase his entire hw run and the last years of his career.

 

[MDoza]

Zero, anyone with a brain knows Jones is the best fighter.

It would be one thing if there was a 225lb cruiserweight division and Jones ducked THAT champ, but the jump from 205lb to 265lb is crazy. The fact that he made light work of Gane and Stipe was impressive enough.

GSP wasn’t even willing to go from 170lb to 185lb until the division had the weakest championship in.. ever.

 

[Captain Herb]

Yes he is a mega cheat but 12 6ers are not eye gouges. We all know that's a dumb ass rule and it shouldn't have existed. I assure you I'm no Jon fan but not all fouls and losses are the same.

Rules are rules and losses are losses. There are untold points that should have been deducted for his blatant eye pokes including the first gus fight which many thought Alex won outright. The Hammil loss was the only time he was ever held accountable for his cheating in the cage.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

He will be a joke forever if we go through all of this nonsense and he never ends up fighting Tom.

His fans will claim him to be the goat no matter what

Both of these statements are true.

 

[MRT]

Personally i don't think Jones will ever fight Aspinall. I also think the way he's behaving is circumstantial evidence that he also ducked Ngannou, the whole 3 yr bulking process was just a duck as far as i'm concerned.

So now he has steroids, and soon he'll have a history of ducking his biggest challenges. To me thats enough to knock him off the GOAT perch.

If we judge Jon's body of work, then turning down Aspinall should not affect his legacy much at all.

Recency bias is real though. Jon only defending the HW belt once, against inactive Stipe, and having only two fights over the past 5+ years (granting some injury time in there)...the way his career has finished will unfortunately tarnish his legacy in the minds of many people.

The risk/reward of fighting Aspinall is obviously not great...but I think if Jon were to come in and decisively beat him, or even win a war like his fight fight with Gus...it would have a outsized effect on his legacy and mean more the win in isolation. He could go out on top, having beaten the clear #1 challenger, with no other legit big-name contenders warranting him sticking around, and silencing all non-hater critics (PED stuff aside).

 

[RockyLockridge]

His fans will claim him to be the goat no matter what

yeah well to be fair he'll still have 17 champion wins with titles in 2 weightclasses....

I'm one of those people that calls him the goat begrudingly. I would love for it to be GSP or Mightymouse but it feels so dishonest. And that's not my style.

 

[RedDevilFan]

If jones does not take the Aspinall fight he will lose credibility because this would be a legit ducking. Aspinall has been relatively quiet and non-confrontational so we will see

 

[El Fernas]

None, one was considered the GOAT even before going for a 2nd division title, he went for it and got it, not fighting the fresh guy does nothing for him, losing to him? Thats what would actually have an effect on it.

 

[TRYHARD 2001]

None for me. He's clearly the greatest fighter of all-time; to deny that is just ridiculous in my eyes. Look at everyone he's beat and how he's beaten them. And he's done it, and continues to do it, for a decade and a half plus! He's not overly interested in fighting any more which is fine and if he doesn't fight Aspinall I'd argue he's earned that right (I hope he does and I'd pick him to win).

However, if he doesn't fight Aspinall next he should retire and let the sport move on.


It's easy to hate on Jon Jones, hell, it took me about 10 years to really get behind the dude due to all of the terrible decisions he's made throughout his life and the fact that he is objectively a terrible person. Like, an absolute piece of shit in all facets of being a human... besides hand to hand combat. That being said, I've found myself rooting for him like I do for some villains in the movies and if you just think of him as being a heel he is doing an amazing job! From wife-beating to drunk driving to sexually assaulting waitresses to hit and run to steroids, etc, etc, etc the guy absolutely sucks at life but that adds a little spice to his fights as many people want to see him get his comeuppance (yet he hasn't yet).

Jon Jones is a legend and deserves all the accolades he gets for what he does in the Octagon. He also deserves how much shit he catches for being an idiot and a sociopath. If you can just accept him as being a really good bad guy it makes the amazing run he's been on since 2008 a lot more enjoyable, albeit in an ironic way.