Why does Jon Jones need to fight Tom Aspinall?

[Mind Mine]

Why should he deserve to dictate his level of opposition? The fights that should be made are what the fans should want, not what Jon wants. And most fans want the hardest challenge.

The dude is the greatest UFC fighter of all time. Why would I want to watch him stat pad in favorable matchups?

To answer your question because the only glaring weakness he has is performing poorly when he doesn’t respect the opponent as a huge moment. At 37 and almost unanimously considered greatest what do you expect? Hate the man all you want he is LAST OF THE GOLDEN ERA. I respect your hate but on terms of being the chosen last of that era still shining HE DESERVES to call his shots. Jones is an icon now. Respectfully Sir shut that up

 

[mkess101]

He doesn’t care about the belt and said it publicly. That’s the part people are missing. I’m a Jones fan and I say strip him. His fans simply don’t care as no matter how much you hate the man he has transcended and become greater than things like rank or climbing the ladder. Jones is what Conor wishes he was. Jones is Godfather. It’s time bro even the haters gotta let him call his shots. Last of the golden era

If he vacates, nobody will be saying anymore he "has" to fight Tom. They might say he's scared of Tom, but whatever. Nobody knows that outside Jones so it would just be conjecture. And then Jones fights who he wants or retires and the HW division moves on. It's not complicated. Fight Tom or vacate. I prefer he fights him because it's a great fight and as a fan...that's what I wanna see. But it's fine if he doesn't. Just decide and let's move forward either way.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

He says he wants to fight for legacy which is literally what the Tom fight is.

If he said he just wants money fights, maybe there'd be an argument.

 

[Mind Mine]

If he vacates, nobody will be saying anymore he "has" to fight Tom. They might say he's scared of Tom, but whatever. Nobody knows that outside Jones so it would just be conjecture. And then Jones fights who he wants or retires and the HW division moves on. It's not complicated. Fight Tom or vacate. I prefer he fights him because it's a great fight and as a fan...that's what I wanna see. But it's fine if he doesn't. Just decide and let's move forward either way.

If people listen to the man he is telling the truth but he has lied so his haters just can’t. Tom has zero legacy and if he were KO’ed and quit tomorrow he wouldn’t be discussed further other than a tiny pocket. I fully understand why a man who worked so hard for a legacy is admittedly afraid of lising legacy to a man with none. People only see the he’s afraid to fight aspect and it’s shortsighted

 

[Iroh]

Yeah maybe some of that too. My point is more that it doesn't really matter the reasons he gives. Just decide. Keep the belt and fight Aspinall, or vacate and fight whoever you want (or retire). The rest is just noise.

Sure, I was just commenting on your comment about the fans.

It's clear that he should fight Tom or vacate, if you truly care about the sport. And if you (and Jon) value legacy, a win over Tom would do the most in terms of actual meaningful accomplishments, not a win over a guy who got sheltered from fighters who pose a grappling threat. The bigger challenge is always the more respectable option. Going purely based on name recognition is just empty fame for the sake of it, but at the cost of being branded a duck by most who aren't casuals. And even casuals will be influenced by YTers and such who are branding him a duck.

 

[Dbreiden83080]

Sherdog demands it..

 

[mkess101]

If people listen to the man he is telling the truth but he has lied so his haters just can’t. Tom has zero legacy and if he were KO’ed and quit tomorrow he wouldn’t be discussed further other than a tiny pocket. I fully understand why a man who worked so hard for a legacy is admittedly afraid of lising legacy to a man with none. People only see the he’s afraid to fight aspect and it’s shortsighted

But why do we care what he's afraid of?(Or if he's afraid at all)? Don't justify, rationalize, any of that shit. Just decide whether you're gonna keep the belt and defend vs Tom, or vacate and do whatever the fuck you want. That's all.

 

[OmegaRugal]

So you ask me a question and I give you examples of why it's not a "rational" thing because that's what you asked...and then you just backtrack and decide you're gonna dump that whole "it's not rationale" line of thinking? The choke wasn't that tight. I've seen enough, been caught in enough, and applied enough guillotines to know when it's tight enough to tap. As have the guys from MMA radio I mentioned. It looked like Gane wanted a way out, and quickly. Not just to me, to a LOT of people who know the sport. You can pretend that's not valid because you think that discredits Jones, I don't really care. That's your choice. Things look the way they look and I'm sorry if you feel that denigrates Jones whom you obviously are very fond of.

Your example has no evidence.

You never taking a choked from Jones. His chokes are nto the same. Look what he did to Machida. Who else can do that to Machida?

You did discredited the win. You made an excused for Gane.

Who said I'm a fan of Jones? Now you continue to make emotional judgements based on no facts.

We can agree to disagree And leave it at that. Arguing based on feel and emotion is not something I care for.

 

[Mind Mine]

But why do we care what he's afraid of?(Or if he's afraid at all)? Don't justify, rationalize, any of that shit. Just decide whether you're gonna keep the belt and defend vs Tom, or vacate and do whatever the fuck you want. That's all.

Understanding the motivations drives weaknesses and moves of the greatest mma chess player is part of mma. His moves outside are trash but that simply just is exactly what it is

 

[mkess101]

Your example has no evidence.

You never taking a choked from Jones. His chokes are nto the same. Look what he did to Machida. Who else can do that to Machida?

You did discredited the win. You made an excused for Gane.

Who said I'm a fan of Jones? Now you continue to make emotional judgements based on no facts.

We can agree to disagree And leave it at that. Arguing based on feel and emotion is not something I care for.

It feels like that's what you're arguing on exactly (emotions), but okay. We see things. We make judgements based on what we see. That's how the world works. Myself and a LOT of others saw Gane that night and based on our own observations made the assessment that he wanted a way out. Your reply of "what's evidence do you have!" is silly. My evidence is what I witnessed.

 

[mkess101]

Understanding the motivations drives weaknesses and moves of the greatest mma chess player is part of mma. His moves outside are trash but that simply just is exactly what it is

I'm a bigger fan of the sport itself than any one fighter. If others are so obsessed with this guy that "What he's afraid of" is more important than how an entire division moves forward...okay. That's pathetic in my view, but whatever.

 

[OmegaRugal]

It feels like that's what you're arguing on exactly (emotions), but okay. We see things. We make judgements based on what we see. That's how the world works. Myself and a LOT of others saw Gane that night and based on our own observations made the assessment that he wanted a way out. Your reply of "what's evidence do you have!" is silly. My evidence is what I witnessed.

If u want to try to explain with part is emption based ... try.

I saw Jones do a nice wicked take down.
I saw Gane look to get up and taking his time and thought he was safe then snap ... choke.

Which part is emotional? All facts.

 

[Soggust]

To answer your question because the only glaring weakness he has is performing poorly when he doesn’t respect the opponent as a huge moment. At 37 and almost unanimously considered greatest what do you expect? Hate the man all you want he is LAST OF THE GOLDEN ERA. I respect your hate but on terms of being the chosen last of that era still shining HE DESERVES to call his shots. Jones is an icon now. Respectfully Sir shut that up

"Jones plays down to his competition, so the best opponent is someone clearly below him"?!??

No fuck that. The best opponent is the one that presents the biggest threat.

Handcrafting his resume delegitimizes it. The reason Jones is the GOAT is because of the killers he fought, when he fought them.

I didn't really think wanting to challenge the P4P best fighter in the world was hating but so be it.

 

[mkess101]

If u want to try to explain with part is emption based ... try.

I saw Jones do a nice wicked take down.
I saw Gane look to get up and taking his time and thought he was safe then snap ... choke.

Which part is emotional? All facts.

The emotional part is you asking for "evidence" on something that (as I explained) we are going off of what we witnessed.

He offered no noticeable resistance to either the takedown or choke. Not sure if you've ever fought, trained, anything. But his reaction to that was NOT normal. You fight the hands. You try to move to lessen the forward pressure your opponent can put on you. It may not always work if your opponent is really strong with a great grip (which Jones of course is) but you still TRY. It's not even a conscious thought, it's freaking INSTINCT for anyone who's ever rolled even a few times.

Believe what you want my dude. I think you're deluding yourself but that's fine. It's not a crime.

 

[ThaiSexPills]

I’m surprised to see people defending this. The HW belt is not a lifetime achievement award, it’s something you actually have to defend against real contenders. There’s no contender real than Tom.

I’m surprised to see so many fight fans defending the blatant ducking of an active champion. It’s not about legacy, who would win or any of that shit, it’s about doing your duties as champion or being stripped. Jon’s special privilege needs to stop now or I fear it could cause serious issues for the sport. Boxing has a big problem with this but MMA was aggressive and strict on BS like this.

Jon needs to shit or get off the pot.

 

[Mind Mine]

"Jones plays down to his competition, so the best opponent is someone clearly below him"?!??

No fuck that. The best opponent is the one that presents the biggest threat.

Handcrafting his resume delegitimizes it. The reason Jones is the GOAT is because of the killers he fought, when he fought them.

I didn't really think wanting to challenge the P4P best fighter in the world was hating but so be it.

I don’t think you understand what the definition of a clout chaser is Sir so defining said terms would be difficult to you. He is an accolade chaser period. Tom simply has a joke of a resume as far as accolades. It think if you are honest with yourself about this and the fughts Jones had subpar performances they are all low clout fights