June 6 was a busy day for the UFC’s heavyweight champion following several social media posts from Jon Jones.
The consensus greatest of all time seemingly clarified that he wouldn’t be returning to the Octagon after Jones shot down the idea of him facing Tom Aspinall.
Aspinall supported Jones’ claims when he stated that ‘Bones’ is already retired and that the UFC will be making an announcement regarding the future of the division at some point soon.
Just as the dust appeared to settle on the heavyweight landscape, another key figure re-entered the conversation following comments from Francis Ngannou’s coach.
Eric Nicksick’s claim that the former UFC champion would be open to returning to the promotion caught the attention of Jones, who described a potential matchup between them as a ‘real super-fight’.
Jon Jones responds to fan criticism that he’s chasing Francis Ngannou because it’s an easier fight than Tom Aspinall
After Jon Jones claimed that a fight with Francis Ngannou would be a matchup that he’s interested in for his own legacy, the fans made their opinions very clear.
The replies to the UFC heavyweight champion pointed to the fact that while both men were still signed to the UFC, ‘Bones’ didn’t seem overly interested in making the fight happen.
Some fans even suggested that Jones is more interested in this fight because Ngannou is an easier opponent for him having been out-grappled in the past.
The champion replied to this criticism by claiming that the same negatives that people are attaching to Ngannou also apply to Tom Aspinall.
Jones dismissed Aspinall’s grappling ability, which suggests that he believes the interim champion isn’t nearly as good as people think.
“You clowns thinking, Francis would be that much easier because of the ground game. Tom has no ground game either. In English black belt is like getting a participation ribbon.”
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We have only seen glimpses of Francis Ngannou and Tom Aspinall’s grappling in recent years
Francis Ngannou hasn’t been incredibly active in recent years but we have seen some clear improvements in his grappling game through his last few fights.
The former heavyweight champion was dominated by Stipe Miocic in his first UFC defeat, giving up 6 takedowns but since that matchup in 2018, he’s only been taken down once.
He has also had some grappling success of his own, taking down Ciryl Gane and Miocic inside the Octagon while he used his wrestling to dominate Renan Ferreira in his PFL debut.
| UFC Opponents Who Took Francis Ngannou Down | Event | Takedowns Landed |
| Ciryl Gane | UFC 270 – 2022 | 1 |
| Stipe Miocic | UFC 220 – 2018 | 6 |
| Anthony Hamilton | UFC Fight Night 102 – 2016 | 1 |
| Curtis Blaydes | UFC Fight Night 86 – 2016 | 2 |
| Luis Henrique | UFC on Fox 17 – 2015 | 1 |
As for Tom Aspinall, we’ve not seen too much of his grappling but with his father being a Jiu-Jitsu coach, this is the world that the Brit originally comes from.
The interim champion has 4 submission wins on his record, including victories over Alexander Volkov and Andrei Arlovski.