Jon Jones has finally gone into detail as to why he feels he isn’t ‘ducking’ Tom Aspinall – despite insisting they will never fight.
The legendary two-division world champion faces Stipe Miocic on Saturday night at UFC 309 in Madison Square Garden. But it seems that the majority of questions he has been asked heading into the bout are about Aspinall, who is weighing in as back-up.
And even though the pair appear to be on a collision course with the Brit holding interim gold at heavyweight, Jones has zero interest in such a match-up. Instead, he wants to face light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira in what he believes is a legacy-defining matchup.
Jon Jones explains why he isn’t ‘ducking’ Tom Aspinall
The UFC held a media day for Saturday night’s event in New York this afternoon, with Jon Jones facing the press during a lengthy scrum. He discussed his fight with Miocic, but the main topic appeared to be his feud or lack thereof with Tom Aspinall.
He vehemently denies ‘ducking’ the Brit, noting his tremendous record in world title fights to date. He told the media: “I get that Tom is an exciting fighter, I get that finally after 16 years we found somebody who is seven years younger than me and 30lb bigger than me.
“We finally found someone who may give me a great challenge and everyone wants to see it so bad. For me, what’s in it for me? He changes nothing if I beat him.
“Beating Tom is just like beating Ciryl Gane [against whom he won the belt at UFC 285 in March of last year]. He has a whole country behind him, he’s hot right now, but what happens to me after I beat him? Nothing changes for me.”
Jon Jones claims he will ‘never do business’ with Tom Aspinall as fight hopes evaporate
Aspinall won his interim belt in November of last year by defeating Sergei Pavlovich on short notice when Jones and Stipe was cancelled due to injury. Since then, he has been pursuing a title unification that appears to be proving elusive.
And Jones now seems to have grown tired of his tactics. The stunts he has performed included pushing for a face-off when they met at a show in the UK earlier this year and showing up to New York this time around.
“If I’m being completely honest, I feel like Tom’s been such an a****** that I don’t want to do business with him,” Jones continued. “His fans have been so annoying and obviously you don’t get this far in a career being affected by fans or what not, but he’s just an a******.
“He’s 30 so he’s from this influencer generation where you hop online with the t-shirt sales and all that. I’m past that type of stuff. I’m like bro if you had a little bit more respect then maybe we could have something out.
“I just don’t even want to do business with him – at the end of the day, this is a business. Fighting me gives him the opportunity to change his life forever. I don’t even want to give him the opportunity.
“He just played his cards wrong with me personally. I’m three years from being a 40-year-old grown man. The press conference, going through the whole shebang with him, I’d rather not do.”
Alex Pereira will instead get shot at Jon Jones if he opts not to retire after UFC 309
The fight that Jones has always seemed to believe makes more sense is with light-heavyweight and former middleweight champion Alex Pereira. The Brazilian has had a legendary run since last November, winning his second UFC title before defending it three times in six months.
Jones reckons that his position as an all-time great contender makes the Brazilian a more intriguing prospect. And he is also a fan of his softer-spoken approach, where he has rarely even called out the heavyweight champion.
“Pereira on the other side,” Jones continued. “Respectful, cool, barely says much. I’ll do business with you – I would risk it all with a human being like you. You actually have the accolades to back up your s***.
“The other guy is just a big mouth who’s hot today. There’s been so many guys who’s hot today who are just gone. Sergei [Pavlovich] was in the same position not too long ago and now he’s starting to fall off already. I’ve just been around this sport too long to give a big mouth who’s hot today the opportunity.”
Later in the media day, he added: “The main goal is to get past Stipe. If I can do it in a really dominant, devastating fashion then the desire in my heart would be like OK, now it’s Alex Pereira.
“If the UFC doesn’t want that to happen because ultimately it’s the boss’ decision, then it won’t happen and I’ll just move on with my life.
“One of the ways I look at it is would you guys rather lose me or get one more super fight and the only super fight that makes sense to me, not to everyone else, but to me and my team, is Alex Pereira.”
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