Tom Aspinall believes Jon Jones isn’t keen on combating him, ever.
Last November, Jones was expected to safeguard his UFC heavyweight title versus Stipe Miocic at UFC 295, up until an injury required the battle to get held off. Rather, Aspinall actioned in on brief notification to deal with back-up fighter Sergei Pavlovich for the interim heavyweight title, winning the belt in simply 69 seconds.
After that, Aspinall required a title marriage bout with Jones, nevertheless Jones rebuffed him. That hasn’t stopped Aspinall from attempting however, and in March, the 2 had an unscripted altercation with one another at the Arnold Sports Festival in Birmingham, England, that made headings. Speaking Monday on The MMA HourAspinall described that it truly wasn’t a huge offer.
“We were both doing fulfill and welcomes, however we resembled 20 meters far from each other,” Aspinall stated. “The entire day! I resembled, I can’t simply leave without stating hey there. I simply wish to go and state hey there. His supervisor didn’t desire me to go over. … Even when I discussed, I was quite near him and he resembled, ‘No, no, no, no! You can’t do this!’ [I said,] ‘I’m simply stating hey there. I simply wish to state hi. I’m not attempting to trigger a scene or absolutely nothing.’
“I truthfully wasn’t attempting to trigger a scene. I simply wished to see, in person– I resembled, ‘Are we going to do this? Oh, I ‘d like to,’ and he offered me the reject. Which’s it.”
The interaction was so short that Jones and Aspinall didn’t even have a faceoff with one another, which Aspinall thinks was a determined choice by Jones.
“I wished to take on,” Aspinall stated. “Jon’s wise, you understand? … Jon will not state anywhere– you can’t discover it, it’s not out there– that he will combat me. He will not state it anywhere openly. He will not state it. You can’t discover a clip, a quote, absolutely nothing, anywhere, of Jon Jones stating, ‘One day I’m going to combat Tom Aspinall, and I’m going to freaking beat the brakes off him. That’s what I’m going to do.’ That does not exist. He does not desire any proof, anywhere, of him consenting to any type of battle with me, due to the fact that he does not wish to go back on that.
“He does not wish to do a faceoff since that promotes a prospective battle. When I ask him, ‘Jon are we going to do this?’ He does not state, ‘Absolutely. Let me get Stipe out of the method and we’ll do it.’ He’ll rather state, ‘Oh, possibly one day.’ Since he does not desire that quote of, ‘We’re going to combat one day.’ It’s very clever.”
Jones’s rejection to engage with Aspinall in any method contrasts his different interactions with previous UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou. Regardless of the 2 fighters remaining in various promos, Jones was more than happy to participate in an extended faceoff with Ngannou at a PFL occasion in 2015.