It looks like UFC fans haven’t forgiven Jon Jones for not fighting Tom Aspinall.
Jones retired in June as one of the greatest MMA fighters to ever do it. Jones is one of three UFC champions to hold belts in the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions and was the youngest champion in promotional history at 23, having defeated generations of fighters since then.
Jones, 38, came under a lot of fire for retiring without unifying the title against Tom Aspinall, who had been the interim champion for nearly 600 days.
Jones angered more fans when he decided to tease his return to the Octagon just weeks after his retirement announcement.
One UFC heavyweight has had enough of Jon Jones.
Curtis Blaydes accidentally starts Jon Jones chant at UFC 319
With Jon Jones as the heavyweight champion, the division was at a bit of a standstill as he opted to fight a 42-year-old Stipe Miocic instead of the #1 contender Aspinall.
Aspinall fought the #4-ranked Curtis Blaydes in a rare interim title defense at UFC 304 last summer while Jones went on to meet Miocic at UFC 309 in November.
While Jones could come back, Blaydes is glad the division has moved on from him for the time being.
“We’re moving along, we don’t got to worry about Jon Jones no more,” Blaydes said at a UFC 319 Q&A (via Red Corner MMA).
After Blaydes mentioned Jones, the fans chanted ‘f— Jon Jones’ over and over again.
“I didn’t mean to start this,” Blaydes reacted to the chants.
“I mean, y’all can keep going…” Blaydes added.
Curtis Blaydes makes prediction for UFC 321 main event
Blaydes is the only UFC fighter that can say they have a win over Tom Aspinall.
Granted, Blaydes’ victory over Aspinall was due to a knee injury sustained by Aspinall in the first 15 seconds of the fight. Their rematch played out differently at UFC 304, with Aspinall getting his hand raised by first-round TKO last year.
Aspinall is set to defend the undisputed title against Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 321 on Oct. 25.
Blaydes hasn’t fought Gane but he’s called out the striker on many occasions, wanting to test his grappling, which has been his weakness in title fights against Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou.
“I think Aspinall beats Gane,” Blaydes predicted at the Q&A panel.