Jon Jones continues to broadcast mixed messages about the prospect of a fight with Tom Aspinall, 18 months after it was first disputed.
Despite the fact that Jones the regular UFC -heavyweight title and Aspinall that owns the Interim -Riem, a dynamic that has been around since November 2023, the couple have booked a fight.
The British Aspinall claimed the interim title by eliminating Sergei Pavlovich when the couple performed after Jones sustained an injury that boomed his planned defense against Stipe Miocic. That all-American match-up eventually became 12 months later, in November 2024, with Jones who stopped the division great only after Aspinall had defended and retained the interim band in July, a rare movement in the UFC.
Jones, 37 and Aspinall, 32, have therefore been ready for six months for a unification fight, but “bones” continues to play with Aspinall.
On Tuesday (May 20), images came to the fore and said, “I am ready”, apparently on a video call with an old friend, who joked that the former light-heavyweight King could continue for another “10 years”.
But on the same day Jones posted an Instagram story of a video with the subtitles: “Have you ever seen a dog like this correct?” The clip shows a dog that barks continuously before a third dog arrives and immediately becomes submissive. “What I feel to return to the UFC after some much needed downtime,” Jones wrote.
He later replied to a fan who wrote: “What does it feel to retire?”, Responding: “I don’t know if I want to retire, I feel that I will always have the opportunity to jump out and show them. I have had a lot of pauses during my career, my identity outside is good intact. I really enjoy life.”
This online activity followed a series of tweets from Jones on Sunday (May 18), when the controversial American returned to fans. He wrote: “You barbed the wrong tree, I told the UFC my plans long ago. I have no idea why they have not shared them with you yet.
“Lol I come across as the type of person who cares about things like things [being stripped of the title] […] This, this attitude, here makes me a very rich man. This despair [from fans] Is incredibly lucrative, so thank you. Let it arrive. “
With the UFC that has announced main events for his pay-per-views in June, July and August, as well as a Mexican-centric event in September, it is unlikely that Jones vs Aspinall will happen before October. UFC President Dana White promised last week that he would announce the game soon, but fans will continue to wait for such an announcement.
In An interview with UFC legend Demetrious Johnson On Wednesday (May 21), Aspinall said that waiting for a fight with Jones mentally was more stressful than his year -infused year free, from 2022 to 2023.
“Then I was really a bit of a intersection,” said Wigan’s heavyweight. “I had earned a little money at the time, I had made enough to buy a house and so, and then it was like: do I want to continue with this thing? It was clearly devastating to be injured for everyone and such. But anyway, it was a tough time for me.
“Come back, took me a year with the rehabilitation, with the knee and everything … the physiotherapy and all that kind of thing. So it was a difficult few months mentally, but once I started working on going back, I would see the doctor, I would see the physio, she wants to jump in two weeks. I always have a small goal to do this.”
“So, after a few months in sitting on the couch, as soon as I could get to the gym and started working on different things, it was great and I felt good. I had something like that:” I definitely want to come back. Now I am going to go; I have no injuries, I am going to win the heavy -weight championship, I am getting out of this legend. ” And all that stuff.
“Now I have been inactive for almost a year without prospects for something other than ‘waiting’. So now it is actually a bit more difficult for me mentally than then it was it […] Now it’s just like: “Just be ready and we just let you know.” It is mentally difficult, but this is the fight against Jon Jones. The fight is something else, this is the tricky bit of where I really have to stay on, stay motivated and I do my best. It is sometimes difficult. “
While some fans consider Jones as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, his career was marred by numerous failed drug tests and Run-ins with the law. Yet the American is effectively unbeaten, with his only loss coming through DQ in 2009.
In the meantime, Aspinall is 15-3 in MMA and 8-1 in the UFC. In the promotion his only defeat took place as a result of injury, while all his career finishes came through an interruption.
In the UFC, Aspinall has the record for the shortest fighting time of an athlete with five or more attacks; All his victories in the promotion came in the first two rounds – seven in the round one, two in the first minute.
The decision of Aspinall to defend the interim strap was a rarity in the UFC, because the Wigan hunter strived to stay active during the absence of Jones. In that fight, Aspinall Curtis Blaydes stopped in 60 seconds, taking his injury-induced loss for the American in 2022.
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