When should Dana strip Jon Jones from his HW title?

[markg171]

Seems simple, and obvious to me.

Tell Jones the Undisputed HW Title will be up for grabs at IFW (July sometime usually).

Jones has the option of either taking the fight or he is stripped. Take whatever the highest offer from the UFC is, and fight Aspinall, or vacate.

I have zero problems with Jones ducking Aspinall. He’s a coward, and is proud to be. But he already got his free gimme defence.

There is ZERO justification for Jones keeping the belt, and fighting Alex next.

Vacate and fight whomever the fuck he wants. Idgaf.

But the UFC can’t, and won’t besmirch the HW title more than they have already at this point.

So Jon has to defend within 8 months of his last defence or he's stripped, but Tom can go an entire year without being stripped and will in fact be rewarded for doing so by being promoted?

There's a useless title here that should be stripped and it's Tom's, not Jon's. Frankly he should've been stripped the moment Jones/Stipe began. At least with Randy/Brock there was Nog/Mir already scheduled that warranted keeping the interim and letting a mini HW tourney play out. This isn't the case here. Tom had no fights lined up that warranted the continued existence of the interim once an undisputed title fight began. The interim ceases to exist once a unification bout begins as the undisputed belt is the one on the line so why not here?

Tom is perfectly capable of remaining #1 contender without continuing to pretend this interim means a damn. The real reason nobody wants Tom stripped is because their argument against a Pereira fight becomes a hell of a lot less powerful. Has nothing to do with whether or not it's at all relevant or needed these days.

 

[Domitian]

That's not even in the ballpark of a justification.I really don't know why fans are continuing to throw out these stretchy non-arguments. Jon has a title he is obligated to defend.

If Jon is going to fight Tom, then step forward and fight him. If he isn't, he gets stripped; there is no ambiguity here.

Unless Jon can just hold on to the title as long as he wants without defending it, maybe five years from now he fights against some Stipe type of guy? These arguments absolutely go nowhere. They aren't advocating any kind of solution, just basically saying, "Jon should be able to keep the title without fighting for as long as he wants." Like, what? That doesn't even begin to make sense. How hard is the idea to grasp that Jon needs to shit or get off the pot? How many different ways can that be said?

Agreed.

Look, the question here shouldn't be "When should the UFC strip Jon?"

The question should be "When is the UFC going to stop being cheap fucks and pay Jon so we can get this show going and make the fans happy?"

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

The question should be "When is the UFC going to stop being cheap fucks and pay Jon so we can get this show going and make the fans happy?"

Very true. Additional question on the other side of the coin: Did they cheap out on paying him for the Stipe fight? Cuz that show did get made to make some "fans" happy, so why isn't this one?

 

[Domitian]

Very true. Additional question on the other side of the coin: Did they cheap out on paying him for the Stipe fight? Cuz that show did get made to make some "fans" happy, so why isn't this one?

To begin, I'm not in the negotiations personally to be able to answer. I think Jon is asking for more money because it's a bigger fight with fan demand and the possibility of losing is higher which means his legacy is more at stake. With a higher risk comes a higher price.

UFC fumbled the Jon vs Francis fight because they were cheap. They don't need to fumble the Jon vs Aspinall fight because they want to be cheap. Add on 5-10 million onto whatever they paid Jon to fight Stipe and let's go.

Instead of focusing on profits 100% of the time, it's not a bad thing to take a loss every now and then to make an investment into satisfying the fans and keeping them engaged in your product.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Not at all. I don't think Gane should have won it either. I don't see how saying he DID win and that makes him the contender by default is "dishonest." He doesn't deserve to be next, but is, and no one who thinks Volkov won, myself included, is going to use that in the comparison of Jon vs Gane against Tom vs Gane in terms of Tom or Jon's worth from the win. We could argue about Gane's merit as a contender, that's one thing, but that's different than his ability as a fighter, which isn't different

It was more about this part "Tom can fight him just fine and get a similar shine"

that is patently false, And I'll tell you one of the biggest problems with the jones decable now, is that people dont even want to give jones credit for beating gane. As if gane is just some complete and total can. If jones isn't going to get any shine or credit for it, Neither is SHOULD tom, of course, Tom will always be treated favorably by fans rather than jones

 

[joy2day]

The question should be "When is the UFC going to stop being cheap fucks and pay Jon so we can get this show going and make the fans happy?"

We don't know that's the issue per se though. The UFC has pay problems, but we don't know that's what's happening in this case. Jon may just be asking for too much money to make it worthwhile for the UFC. We don't know what they are offering him or what he is demanding. It doesn't matter in the end though in terms of this fight- Jon is going to have to either take the fight or move on, and at this point, it's time to move on. What if all of the titles were held up for 3 years without being defended? It's not a sustainable position.

 

[RockyLockridge]

To begin, I'm not in the negotiations personally to be able to answer. I think Jon is asking for more money because it's a bigger fight with fan demand and the possibility of losing is higher which means his legacy is more at stake. With a higher risk comes a higher price.

UFC fumbled the Jon vs Francis fight because they were cheap. They don't need to fumble the Jon vs Aspinall fight because they want to be cheap. Add on 5-10 million onto whatever they paid Jon to fight Stipe and let's go.

Instead of focusing on profits 100% of the time, it's not a bad thing to take a loss every now and then to make an investment into satisfying the fans and keeping them engaged in your product.

IF this truly is Jones last dance, I think he should absolutely hardball the UFC for a proper final payday for absolutely as long as they are willing to play ball. Hold the belt hostage, Let them strip you, Play games. If I'm jones I'm doing whatever it takes to make sure I get mine at this point. If I'm Jones handler, I'm playing hardball till I get my client stripped.

 

[Domitian]

We don't know that's the issue per se though. The UFC has pay problems, but we don't know that's what's happening in this case. Jon may just be asking for too much money to make it worthwhile for the UFC. We don't know what they are offering him or what he is demanding. It doesn't matter in the end though in terms of this fight- Jon is going to have to either take the fight or move on, and at this point, it's time to move on. What if all of the titles were held up for 3 years without being defended? It's not a sustainable position.

It's either Jon wants more money or Jon is scared. Implying a man with 30 MMA fights and 17 title fights is scared logically doesn't compute and is a rather dumb position.

Jon wants to get paid. UFC should pay him.

 

[Dr Fong]

Wasn't Ank supposed to destroy Pereira?

Hard to keep up with your guys narratives

I am truly astounded by the stupidity of this post.

Do you actually think there is some sort of contradiction between who people think will win between Poatan and Ank, and who they think Poatan will fight IF he beats Ank?

 

[Bend NvR Break]

Why does everyone think Jon and the UFC's relationship is bad?
Clearly the UFC is ok with the current situation going on with Jon.

 

[HereticBD]

Why does everyone think Jon and the UFC's relationship is bad?
Clearly the UFC is ok with the current situation going on with Jon.

Not to mention prior situations...

He's obviously their favorite son.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

It was more about this part "Tom can fight him just fine and get a similar shine"

that is patently false, And I'll tell you one of the biggest problems with the jones decable now, is that people dont even want to give jones credit for beating gane. As if gane is just some complete and total can. If jones isn't going to get any shine or credit for it, Neither is SHOULD tom, of course, Tom will always be treated favorably by fans rather than jones

That's splitting the crowd. My opinion on the fight reflects both extremes of those two different things I mentioned before: the difference between a person's position as a contender vs performance. Gane was THE guy to beat. Period. He was the top contender and last title challenger, which is prime material for a vacant belt fight. I also seemed to be alone in pointing out before the fight that, stylistically, he was maybe the easiest win for Jones.

The fact people don't separate these two concepts is a huge fault. On all sides, but certainly more on the critics. I'll give people the ability to try to argue that Jon's timing was convenient and "cherry picky" in that way, but that's an uphill battle. But that's different than acting like, of the contenders available, that Gane was a cherry pick?° That's some serious retcon bullshit.

I still think that makes him largely *unchallenged* though, and there's a reason superfights are dumb and a guy should have wins over multiple ranked contenders before being a champ, like how it was an obvious criticism that the UFC was gearing Conor to a title fight without fighting any of the grapplers at FW, who made up nearly half the rankings. So this way, you can feel like you have a champ that answered the multiple questions their division asked, not just one question, even if it was the best question he could have been asked.

But ignoring those critics and looking at the more casual fanbase, trying to act like Jon hasn't benefitted in the "whose the baddest man on the planet" argument against Francis by steamrolling the guy who Frank scraped past would certainly be dishonest. Of course he did. Who was the top guy for Jon to fight? Gane. Was Gane's skillset a silver platter for Jon? Yeah. You could substitute "Tom" in for "Jon" and the answers are the exact same.

°(Tangent as an aside for the Jon-Gane matchup: Of course, if we're also bringing in the idea of business-booking, putting Gane in would have been a risk if they actually thought he could win, considering Ngannou just beat him and they don't want their champ to be Ngannou's leftovers. The goal was likely always Stipe vs Jon, so that could have been the vacant belt from the start, but I guess the UFC wouldn't want a crowning fight for something that could have been a double retirement. They were likely going to have Blaydes-Pav be the vacant fight if they couldn't get a deal with Jon, but the second they could, there was no reason to pull either of them to fight him)

 

[tritestill]

I was with you until "at times"

If JJ won't commit to a date to fight the interim champion, there's no doubt he should be stripped.

I can't say he's always scum, he does nice things from time-to-time, like the time he hugged that kid at that park. The time he brought that kid with illness to the event. The time he stopped people from marking up stuff in his neighborhood.

 

[El Fernas]

Jones fought 4 months ago...that buys him at least like another 6-8 months.

Aspinal fought like 6 months ago...its his chance to "speak up" by knocking a couple of fresh contenders to force the issue, its not like he took a lot of damage.

Maybe they should strip Aspinall, hasn't fought in 8 months...

Wondering why he hasnt made a statement by fighting contenders like every 4 months, Jones isnt willingly fighting him, and the UFC wont pay Jones the "fuck you money" he allegedly wants, more like "im not fighting him unless you give me a dumb amount of money this fight wont bring in".

 

[Shano123]

pathetic how little the HW title has been defended in the last 4-5 years

 

[Cobra 03]

I would give him 6 months from his last fight. I am a Jones fan, but even I am getting tired of all the games. Either fight Aspinall, or give up the belt. By doing that, he could still do the Pereira fight if he wanted that one down the road. I heard it would be at a catch weight anyhow, so it wouldn't hold up the HW belt.

 

[Hank Grill]

Dana would catch so many eye pokes trying to take it

 

[joy2day]

It's either Jon wants more money or Jon is scared. Implying a man with 30 MMA fights and 17 title fights is scared logically doesn't compute and is a rather dumb position.

Jon wants to get paid. UFC should pay him.

(1) GSP has said he was "scared" before fights, so actually, the idea they DON'T get scared is a dumb position. Not that what I said has anything to do with being scared, I don't even know where you got that. I do think Jon is realistic about his chances in a fight with Tom, and that's the reason for all of this delaying; this isn't something he really wants. He keeps bringing up the fight with Alex, which is what he has been angling for; the UFC just isn't buying in because they aren't having a situation where Jones wins and then retires.

(2) Do you have some information the rest of us don't know about what Jon wants and what they are offering him? If not, we don't know whether Jon is asking for inordinate amounts of money for the fight with Tom- the idea that he is being reasonable and "just wants to get paid" as you put it is pure speculation- you have NO IDEA what the state of the negotiations are. For all we know, Jones could be being a total wanker about it.

 

[Bobby Boulders]

If he goes a year from the Stipe fight without fighting Aspinall, yes, strip him.

The situation creates a conflict of interest for me, bc it is obvious that if Poatan wins, that will be the fight Jones says he wants. And I like Poatan, and generally want him to win, but I think that, in this case, I'd rather he lose, so Jones/Poatan makes less sense, and Jones flail around about not wanting to fight Tom, and giving bullshit reasons why, and making himself look like a bitch.

 

[fzoid4454]

There is an absolutely solid basis for stripping him. He has had the title 3 years and has zero defenses against the top contender (which is supposed to happen every year). He should be stripped if he won't agree to fight the interim champ soon. Having a belt comes with an obligation to defend it against the top contender regularly. Jon has ONE FIGHT in 3 years as champion, and it wasn't against the #1 contender, it was a gimme fight.

He won the title in his fight with Gane in March of 2023.

It is March of 2025 now.

He's defended the title in a matchup approved and blessed by the UFC, after a delay for a torn pectoral muscle. Just months ago. That makes him, now, an active champion.

Regardless, and, again, he just defended the belt three months ago. There is no basis for stripping him of the title.

That's a stupid argument on your part, and not just because you don't know what 2025 minus 2023 is. (Hint - it's not 3).