Tom Aspinall steps back from Jon Jones pursuit after heated exchange on social media
Tom Aspinall has had enough of his back-and-forth with Jon Jones on social media and recently stated that he's willing to take a step back from his relentless pursuit of the reigning UFC heavyweight champion.
For context, Jones was initially booked to fight Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 this past November. However, 'Bones' was forced to pull out of the fight due to injury, and the booking was scrapped altogether. As a result, Aspinall stepped in on short notice to face Sergei Pavlovich for the interim heavyweight title.
Aspinall secured an impressive first-round knockout victory over the Russian to become the interim heavyweight champion. Soon after, the Englishman called for a title unification bout against Jones. However, the undisputed champion is out for several months for recovery and is meant to fight Miocic upon his return.
This didn't sit well with Aspinall, who protested having to wait for his title unification bout against Jones and has been calling out the UFC icon online. The two have been trading shots at each other on X over the past few days, and Aspinall's seemingly had enough.
In a recent post on X, the 30-year-old Englishman stated that he's simply trying to prove himself against the best martial artist and would stop the callouts if Jones wasn't keen. He wrote:
"Forget all the other stuff about titles and résumé etc. I just think I can beat you in a fight, mate, but if you don’t want to, I won’t keep chasing you."
Jon Jones slams Tom Aspinall for incessant callouts despite weak resume
Jon Jones recently fired back at Tom Aspinall for constantly calling him out and brought up the Englishman's professional resume.
As mentioned above, Aspinall wasn't happy about Jones staying on the sidelines for months and then snubbing his title unification bout for a high-profile fight against Miocic. As the interim heavyweight champion repeatedly expressed his discontent, Jones had enough and fired back.
Pointing out Aspinall's resume, Jones sarcastically called him the "King of England" and wrote on X:
"Only four recognizable opponents, and already the king of England, must be nice. There will be legendary tales told about you and your infamous callouts."
Jones followed up with another post comparing his career to Aspinall's and wrote:
"I mean, it doesn’t really work like that. I was a champion when I was 23 years old, you can’t show up at age 30 pretending like you’ve been chasing me your whole life. I have no clue who 90% of his résumé is. Meanwhile, I’ve been highlighting UFC events my entire career."