When Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall were 22 years old and 31 years old. (Career comparison)

[Tweak896]

To be real though, if Aspinall is 38 and still no real losses, and someone naturally bigger than him steps in 6 years younger than him new to the sport. You can compare that. Jones has fought in UFC since 2008, so really no comparison. 17 years in the UFC and only his first 3 he wasn't the champ. If this was boxing even haters would admit he has some mileage on him and it's a duck, but it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison.

 

[Ginja_Ninja]

Two completely different careers at two completely different eras of the sport.

This is exactly what I expect, I don't think there is anyone out there claiming Aspinall has had a better career.

But you still have a champion who does not want to defend his title in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[Koro_11]

Tom might beat Jones today, and he might not, it's crazy to pick against Jones.

But Tom will NEVER reach Jones' level of accomplishments.

 

[TimeToTrain]

Jones at 22 to present, has always been on PEDs. His team understands the science well to leave his system undetectable most times. The Barry Bonds of MMA, while Tom is a modern day natural like Ohtani.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

for me? his earn the right at the end here... to fight who he wants he got what 1 fight left maybe maybe 2.... not like we all believe he going be here for 5.......

Like any fighter he can fight who he wants. He just has to let go of the "Undisputed" HW title. I honestly don't get why fans of a fighter want to cheer on their favourite guy "Not" fighting. Or holding a belt and defending it against someone clearly not deserving.

I am a huge GSP fan. I loved that he fought all comers and rattled off a list of defenses against the best WW challengers out there. When he came back it was to challenge the true MW champion. He won but then his health made fighting at MW unsustainable. I certainly didn't want to see GSP return to fight Nate Diaz. I didn't want to see him defend the MW title against Dave Menne.

Why are some Jon Jones fans boastful about him winning a vacated title agaisnt a perfect style match in Gane and defending it against the ghost of Stipe? Shouldn't you want to see him fight Aspinal and see if he can actually beat a legit threat at HW? Jon goes on about his legacy but frankly he can't legitimately be considered a HW champion. Gane isn't a champion or even a former champion. He won a #1 contender belt against Lewis and it was an unnecessary one since since Francis was back 5 months later. FYI he Unified against the "Interim" champion in his first fight.

Jon went on to "Defend" against Stipe despite there being an Interim champion. That was just sad and it was 100% driven by Jon. That's who he wanted to fight. The only one he wanted to fight so the UFC had to decide get that fight or have Jon retire. They just should have done it for the "Legacy" belt and let the HW division move on with real HWs. But Jon would only fight Stipe and only fight if it is called the "Undisputed" HW title. This despite there literally being a clear dispute since an actual active HW holding another championship belt.

Imagine GSP coming back off his knee injury and insisting on fighting Nick Diaz despite him losing his last fight to Condit and having another fighter holding an Interim belt too boot. GSP did the right thing by beating Condit to Unify and then since he had run thru everyone already and the build up to a fight with Nick already being there he fought Nick.

Jon ducking Asinall and holding a true "Paper" title takes away from his legacy. If he were to come back and actually fight Tom and lose it adds to his Legacy. If he wins it would actually put him ahead of GSP as the all time GOAT IMO.

 

[WillyWarminski]

Tom Aspinall at 22 years old was tapping to no name skinny white guys with no wikipedia:
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Jon Jones was literally breaking people's faces (see the Brandon Vera and Matt Hamill fights), already 6-0 in the UFC at 22 years old (if you count when he left Matt Hamill left for dead but got DQed), and about to obliterate Shogun for the title. Tom Aspinall has 8 wins in the UFC in his entire career to date for perspective.
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At 31 years old, Jon Jones was already a UFC legend, 19-0 in the UFC, having beaten the likes of Cormier x2, TRT Vitor, Machida, Rampage, Rashad Evans, Gus x2, OSP, prime Glover Texeira, Chael Sonnen, Shogun, Ryan Bader, etc. 8 or 9 title defenses, and won the vacant title that he was stripped of like 3 times.
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At 31 years old, Tom Aspinall is 8-1 in the UFC, with his best win being against Sergei Pavlovich. 0 title defenses.
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Ok

 

[Azzy]