Tom Aspinall shares brutally honest theory on Jon Jones allegedly dismissing title unification fight: "That is high-level business"
Tom Aspinall recently gave his take on Jon Jones' continuous refusal of a title unification fight. Aspinall deduced that Jones might be using this as a marketing ploy to build anticipation for their potential bout.
For context, Aspinall has been calling out Jones for a title unification bout ever since he took home the interim title at UFC 295 last year. However, Jones insisted on making his first heavyweight title defense against former champion Stipe Miocic and repeatedly ruled out fighting Aspinall, which led to the two targeting one another on social media and in interviews.
During a recent segment of Fight Labs on TNT Sports' YouTube channel, Aspinall expressed his thoughts on Jones' allegedly denying to face him. The Brit praised 'Bones', asserting that it is a smart business move.
''Day one, as a professional UFC fighter, if someone asks you about some other opponent, say I’m fighting [interviewer Adam Catterall] this weekend, if someone asks me, ‘Right, what about this other guy who’s not involved?’ I say, ‘I’m gonna get past Adam and then we’ll speak about him.
Aspinall continued:
''Jon [Jones] didn’t do that. Jon immediately starts saying, ‘No, I don’t want to fight Tom,’ which the easiest thing in the world would be, ‘I’m gonna talk about it after Saturday. I’m not talking about it this week,’ but he kept bringing that into the conversation, and that is high-level business, really high level.'' [H/t: BJ Penn]
Check out the full video below:
Before Miocic clash at UFC 309 last month, Jones hinted at retirement or facing UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira in a super fight, which would be significant for his legacy. However, UFC CEO Dana White dismissed Jones facing Pereira and stated that his next fight would be against Aspinall.
Tom Aspinall breaks down Jon Jones' victory against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309
Jon Jones successfully defended his heavyweight title at UFC 309 by dropping Stipe Miocic with a devastating spinning back kick and knocking him out via follow-up ground and pound shots in the third round. In his aforementioned appearance on TNT Sports' YouTube channel, Tom Aspinall discussed Jones' spinning back kick and praised his fight IQ, saying:
''Watch this hand. He constantly distracts you with the lead hand. So, he's keeping you busy with this before he starts to turn and starts to do these kicks. This comes first, is the front hand, look, he just paws it out before he does anything, and he does that every time. He occupies the front hand and then works his attacks off it, which is high-level fight IQ stuff from Jon Jones. He's one of the smartest fighters ever."
Check out Tom Aspinall's comments below: