When Jon Jones held the undisputed UFC heavyweight championship, the fight promotion aggressively worked to book a title unification bout between Jones and interim titleholder Tom Aspinall. Jones show no interest in fight and retired. Aspinall was then elevated from interim to undisputed champion.
In his first title defense as undisputed titleholder, Aspinall faced former interim champion Ciryl Gane in the UFC 321 main event on Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi. The fight ended prematurely late in the opening round after Gane accidentally poked Aspinall in the eyes. The Brit was unable to see and unable to continue, and the bout was ruled a no contest.
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Jones questions Aspinall’s toughness when facing adversity and accused the current titleholder of being quick to quit when hurt.
“When Tom gets hurt, he’s like immediately incapacitated. Immediately,” Jones said on the No Scripts Podcast. “It’s like, he poked my eye, and then he’s like immediately, there’s no like (blinking). Dude, I would have been the silliest looking cat on national TV (blinking). Trying.
“Same thing with Curtis Blaydes when he hurt his knee. There was no limping. There was no trying to get up. It’s just like immediately, burn my village I can’t go on like this,” continued Jones. “He immediately quits. When he got tapped out with an ankle lock, there was no trying to fight his hands. He immediately quit.”
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Jones came out of retirement after two weeks prompted by the announcement of next year’s UFC event at the White House. If he had his way, Jones would have his octagon swan song at the event.
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“I hope so. I really hope so,” he said.
Jones last fought at UFC 309 last November, defeating former two-time heavyweight titleholder Stipe Miocic via TKO. It was Jones’ first and only heavyweight title defense.
