Following UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones’ blatant refusal to fight interim champion Tom Aspinall, the former’s biggest rival Daniel Cormier has urged him to give the Brit his day in the sun.
Jones would rather fight Alex Pereira amidst accusations of ‘ducking’ Aspinall but DC believes, a passing-of-torch moment must come to pass eventually. It happened for Jones when he beat Shogun Rua. Jones was then offered fights with one legend after another and went through all of them. So much so, that by 2016, when he fought DC, he was already a legend.
It’s Aspinall’s moment now. Using Michael Jordan’s rise to the top, Cormier explained that for Jordan to be as great as he was, he needed to go through the Detroit Pistons, who had won everything in the 80s. The former double champ also talked about a golden rule of sports and added,
It really is the tail of sports, the tail of entertainment…He had to beat the Boston Celtics to be in the finals, who were going back and forth with the Lakers. The old guard needs to get passed through for the new guard to happen.
Seemingly calm but with slight frustration in his voice, DC also gave Jones a reality check on who Aspinall was
“So Jon, to say he is a nobody… Is he really? He’s the world champion. He’s the world champ, that’s what he is. He’s the number 2 heavyweight in the world. He’s not the interim champion. He’s not the guy, who is just working his way through the division, he’s the guy who has smashed the division.”
Jones had also claimed that the interim champion was trying to make a name for himself by using his, something he would not allow. DC took most offense to this particular sentiment and tried to talk some sense into his former rival.
“My issue is with that final statement though, not giving him the opportunity to make a name off of me. But you’re Jon Jones. Most people would still expect you to beat Tom Aspinall.”
While DC has been dangling carrots, former middleweight champion Michael Bisping has called for stripping Jones of his title if he refuses to give Aspinall his title shot.
Bisping calls Jones “No. 1 Bulls**t”
Never one to be diplomatic, the UFC veteran laid it out in simple terms for Jones to understand.
“The reality is that Jon Jones is now the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and if he fights Stipe Miocic, and if he is victorious, he has to face Tom Aspinall next – this is just the way that the world works.”
Bisping also channeled the words of the undefeated lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and called his decision to avoid Aspinall, “no.1 bu****t“.
“I’m telling you right now, it is number one bull****… If he refuses to fight Tom Aspinall next, then we’ve got to start having a serious conversation as to whether or not this man should be stripped.”
Bisping, who also happens to be a friend and mentor to Aspinall compared Jones’ ridiculous statement to boxing and said that if it were the other sport, and he had refused to fight the next in line, the title would be removed off of him come morning.
Bisping isn’t wrong either. The problem remains that MMA is not an organized sport like it should be. With a WWE-like monopoly in the MMA market, UFC holds almost all the cards and it plays them like gambling more often than not. With unstandardized matchmaking and rankings, it’s almost as if it is the wild west out there with simply no sheriff in town.