Daniel Cormier sees reason behind Jon Jones’ next move.
The current UFC Heavyweight Champion has been heavily criticized for the direction his career is headed in, as Jones wants to fight Stipe Miocic in his return to the Octagon. The title fight itself wasn’t controversial when it was booked last November for UFC 295, but that all changed when Tom Aspinall was added to the mix.
Suffering an injury in his training camp, Jones was forced to withdraw from his fight with Miocic and an interim title was made on the spot with Aspinall claiming gold after TKO’ing Sergei Pavlovich in the very first round.
Jones, who has an even bigger target on his back now, is still adamant about fighting Miocic and has shot down the idea of a title unification bout with Aspinall on multiple occasions. The reigning champion has riled up many fans, demanding that he defend against the highly-touted Aspinall rather than a fellow legend in Miocic.
Despite being heated rivals for many years, Cormier isn’t one to criticize Jones for who he wants to fight next– especially when “Bones” is so close to finishing out his UFC legacy.
“That’s BS,” Cormier told MMA Junkie Radio, regarding the notion that Jones should fight Aspinall next instead of Miocic. "[If] he loses to Aspinall, people will start to question if he’s that guy because that’s how it works. That’s how it works. For so long, there was never a question that Anderson Silva was always gonna be considered the the greatest of all time. Dude starts getting beat towards at the end of his career— had he not started losing those fights, he was still sat right by Jon Jones and Georges St-Pierre, if not above them [in the ‘greatest of all time’ conversation]. It’s how it is.
“It would be great [if Jones fought Aspinall]. I would love it. I understand. But, this dude right now is probably at a point in his career where he’s like, ‘make the most money, take the least amount of risk’. That would seem to me like he’s trying to do it smart,” Cormier said of Jones. “Because I know that Tom Aspinall is a problem, man. He’s the real deal. He’s big. He’s physical. He’s strong. He can wrestle. He can do everything that would seem to present problems to a guy going up in a weight class to try to beat him.”
Interim belt or not, England’s Aspinall has definitely proved his worth as the rightful #1 contender in the heavyweight division. While Aspinall may deserve a title shot, Jones explains his logic for wanting to fight Miocic and why he’s probably not going back on his word.
“I’m in the middle of a pretty clear decision, stick to exact and original plans, and fight the man with all the accolades. Or, completely disregard all of the Stipe training I’ve put in and fight another potential hype train that may not even be around in three years,” Jones wrote of Aspinall on ’ X’. “I am not changing my plans for anyone. Stipe is over there as the best heavyweight ever working his ass off. I’m gonna give that man what he wants, and I’m going to claim another head. Whatever comes next comes next.”
The 41 year-old Miocic has not fought anyone since he ran into Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 in March 2021 and lost his heavyweight title via knockout. It’s not the high note he’d want going into a legacy fight with Jones, but the setback to Ngannou doesn’t wipe away the fact he’s one of the the greatest heavyweight fighters to ever step into the UFC Octagon.
Cormier, who has fought both Jones and Miocic more than once, rates the former champion’s chances against Jones at this stage of his career.
“I fought at 41, and I knew how different I was from 39 to 41,” Cormier said. “Stipe hasn’t fought in 4 years. I don’t know how you get back in that Octagon and fight as effectively as you need to be. We don’t know because Ciryl Gane didn’t test [Jones] as much as we thought he would. Is Jon Jones that same guy? We don’t know that. We don’t know if Jon Jones is the guy that he was back when he was beating all those great fighters. I mean, I don’t know. We really did get a sample size of who Jon Jones is as a heavyweight. Can you make a judgment based on that? I don’t know.”
Love it or hate it, Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic seems to be on the agenda for the next UFC Heavyweight title fight.
way too inactive devision
Anderson is, and will always be, a legend. The fact that he tested himself later in his career only adds to that, in my opinion.
Not sure I can say the same about Jones “playing it smart.” Still comes across as a lame name-grab for a resume.
If Jones fought Aspinall and lost, I’d actually grant him MORE respect. But that’s just me.
What the fuck is the point of an “Interim HW Champion” if the “HW Champ” can duck I mean be smart and choose and pick to fight inactive fighters over them?
Bunch of horseshit but completely unsurprisingly
The whole division sucks in general. There’s like 3 decent heavyweights in the UFC right now. It’s not even a shadow of the division from 2010-2011. The current state of the heavyweight division makes the 2005 (UFC) roster look better by comparison.
Because non-juiced heavyweights gas in the first round. Wada killed the division.
People forget that Anderson had been trying to “play it smart” for quite a while and pick his fights too until he finally lost to Weidman.
“This is typical Anderson Silva, Ed Soares craziness," said White. "Every f—ing time there’s a fight. He wants to fight ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson, then he wants to fight this guy and that guy. This is always the same deal.”
-Dana White when Anderson was saying Weidman didn’t “deserve” to fight him and it should be Cung Le instead lol. He did that with top MW contenders for years until even Dana was publically shitting on his biggest star.
Nobody seems to remember these things about Anderson though for some reason. 
He also greased way more blatantly than GSP several times lol.
Once that streak was over, he gave no fucks though fighting Cormier. I’d like to see Jon let go that way before he retires.
Well, I won’t think anyone needed DC to explain that JJ is ducking Aspinall to make some money and pad the record before he retires. Everyone got that.
Regarding legacy I would think more of Jones if he fought Aspinall, win or lose. That would be a gutsy move. Insisting on fighting a washed Stipe when there’s an interim champ out there - who is obviously the right contender - make me think less of him. That’s also how it works, DC.
Bull fucking shit
Young lion or an old lion that hasn’t eaten in 4 yrs.
I never knew that. Did he actually ask to fight Cung Le instead of Weidman???
Holy f%ck… that’s eye opening
It became tiresome when there would be a contender who deserved a shot and Silva would talk about wanting to fight his own clone when asked.
100% agree its insane and that is the whole point of the interim title.
Best part is Jon now saying that Aspinall should DEFEND the interim belt aka do Jon’s job for him while Jon fights someone outside the top ten so he can claim GOAT status after the fight lol.
Jon is a textbook narcissist. We literally have two belts at heavyweight now if Aspinall defends.
I hope Stipe is on stem cells, TRT, EPO, HGH and also eats clen, trens hard anaver gives up
I hope that with USADA gone, we can get the whole heavyweight division gassed up. Sick of seeing out of shape fatties huffing after the first round