Before there was Tom Aspinall, Jon Jones was being accused of ‘ducking’ a completely different style of fighter.
Corey Anderson’s soft-spoken approach and grappling-intensive style meant he was never going to be given any favors by the UFC in his pursuit of gold.
But when he capped off a four-fight winning streak with an explosive knockout of the fast-rising Johnny Walker, he quickly declared ‘there’s levels’ in a post-fight outburst. The fight never came to fruition, and he was forced to fight Jan Blachowicz in a rematch that cost him his dream of a UFC title bout.
Corey Anderson insists Jon Jones will never fight Tom Aspinall
Six years ago, while Tom Aspinall was still a year from his first UFC contract, the man who seemed to have earned his shot at Jon Jones was Corey Anderson. However, the bout never happened and the sport’s greatest of all time even celebrated from cageside when his rival lost his winning run.
Now, he sees many similarities between his situation and Aspinall’s, insisting that the Brit will never get his shot at gold.
“It’s the same situation,” Anderson told Bloody Elbow in an exclusive chat ahead of his rematch with Dovlet Yagshimuradov at the PFL Champions Series in Dubai.
“Everybody asks me ‘do you think Jon Jones is ducking?’ Like? 100 per cent. It’s kind of funny we both had the same thing where Jon had a meet and greet.
“So Tom ended up going to the one in his country, and years ago Jon had a meet and greet right down the street from my gym in New Jersey and I ended up coming, so he called security and had me kicked out.
“So people go ‘you really think he’s ducking?’ Yes, those are his tendencies. If it’s somebody he’s confident he can beat you’re going to hear him talking about you all the time in the media ‘I’m fighting such and such, I’m ready for such and such’.
“When he doesn’t have that confidence in it and what he can do, he kind of stays quiet, doesn’t say your name and then does everything he can to say ‘I need more time, I need more time’. It is what it is, but you can’t take away what he did – except for the fact he did a lot of steroids.”
At the time in 2019, Johnny Walker was the fast-rising star at light-heavyweight with explosive knockouts that landed him the number 13 ranking within a year of his Dana White’s Contender Series contract win. However, Anderson knocked him out in a round at UFC 244 to cement his spot as a top contender.
The American told the UFC he would be happy to be released if his next fight weren’t a title shot. He felt that wins over Glover Teixeira and Walker were enough to warrant it, but ended up rolling the dice in a rematch with Blachowicz, who stopped him in his tracks.
“I needed to do one more, another rematch,” he recalled. “So I went out there and that was one of them fights where I was trying to prove a point. I don’t try to go out and knock anybody out any more, but I thought I had to get a finish to get that title fight.
“If I had just gone out there and wrestled and won, mauled him for five rounds on the ground like I did the first time, there was no denying me the title fight because there was nobody else left. But I went trying to prove a point and it cost me.
Corey Anderson advises Tom Aspinall to forget about Jon Jones
As far as Anderson is concerned, the best bet for Aspinall right now is to forget about Jones and focus on his own legacy. He begins that journey by defending his newly-minted undisputed heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 later this month in Abu Dhabi.
“What I’d say to Tom is stay focused and stay doing your thing,” Anderson offered. “You’re doing a great job making a name for yourself. You are already one of the GOATs coming so don’t worry about him, if the time comes the time comes.
“If not then just keep doing what you’re doing, keep winning and build your legacy… If Tom messes around and gets hurt or retires, Jon will pop back up. Then when Tom comes back, he’ll be out again.”