After the highly anticipated match up at UFC 309 between current champion Jon Jones and the best heavyweight in UFC history Stipe Miocic we look at the dimension at the top of the division and the collision course between Jones and interim champion Tom Aspinall.
Legacy fights are seemingly what’s important to Jon ‘bones’ Jones who added another legendary name to his long list of victims at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday evening in the form of 42 year old Stipe Miocic who hasn’t fought since March 2021 when he was brutally knocked out by Francis Ngannou, now of the Professional Fighters League. Stipe shown a tiny flicker of what he had in the past but not enough to ignite the flame which once burned so strong when he was rampaging through the best heavyweights of his era. The skillset of the current champion was too much, as usual, Jones was too hot to handle and even though he’s significantly but naturally slowed down at 37 going on 38 years of age and coming up a weight class after operating and dominating at light heavyweight for a number of years he produced yet more classic Jon Jones moments with brutal elbows, sharp, accurate punches and a highlight reel spinning back kick to the midsection of Miocic to finish him in the third round.
Sat in the best seat in the house at octagon side was Tom Aspinall who won the interim title last November when he stopped Sergei Pavlovich inside the first round after Jones was forced to withdraw from the originally scheduled fight with Miocic at UFC 295. Tom has beaten 5 of the current top 10 ranked heavyweights stopping them all in the first round and has been trying to force the fight with ‘bones’ for some time now. With the American stating on numerous occasions that he wants ‘legacy fights only’ with the likes of current light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira instead of fighting ‘up and comers’ which is how he views UK’s Aspinall.
The fans, Aspinall and even Dana White see it differently, they see Tom as the biggest threat to Jones and the current champion must fight the man who holds the interim status to determine who is the undisputed man of the marquee division. The potential blockbuster match up is being viewed as the biggest heavyweight fight in history. So, if and when the two do get in the octagon together it would likely break PPV records across the globe.
From Alex Pereira’s point of view I understand why he would also want to chase legacy, arriving in a heavyweight championship fight as a two weight UFC champion aiming to break records and claim a third title since his promotional debut in March 2021 is an unthinkable achievement and was surpass anything anybody has ever done if he was to accomplish it, especially against Jones who is regarded by many as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. However, Pereira operates at 205lbs which is a considerable amount less than 265lb Aspinall or 237lb Jones. He was also knocked out by Israel Adesanya in their middleweight title rematch last year. With president Dana White stating in UFC 309 post fight press conference that he wouldn’t be giving the go ahead for ‘Poatan’ to fight the champion, if he’s serious about moving up to the bigger weight class the sensible move for the Brazilian would be to bed into the weight properly and do a full camp to help his body acclimatise to it. There are names in the top 10 heavyweight division that could give him all sorts of problems which would give the top brass, the fans and Pereira himself a better indication whether he could roll with the either Jones or Aspinall.
The only fight to make is Jones vs Aspinall and a lot believe that it’s a better legacy fight for the current champion opposed to a fight with Pereira. Many believe that fighting the guy that’s blowing everybody away and holds the interim title is the ultimate legacy fight, to be a part of an era of fighters and dominating every single one of them then moving up to heavyweight and beating the current most dominant man in the rankings who’s expected to rule for years to come would solidify his status and make it absolutely unquestionable that he is the greatest of all time.
Positive talks have already been held between Dana White and Tom Aspinall who has declared that they are absolutely pushing for the fight to happen, whether Jones accepts remains to be seen, he wants it on his terms and in his own words he wants that ‘f**k you money’ to fight the Englishman. Which, in all honesty he deserves with the status he’s achieved, and as skilled as Jones is he knows that Aspinall is a different breed to what he’s faced before. The speed and power of Tom is frightening and at his age Jon doesn’t have as much as he once did which would likely see him rely on other aspects of his game to produce the win.
The possibility of that isn’t to be ignored whatsoever, it’s highly likely that Jones would be favourite with the bookies heading into the fight, which is justified. He’s defeated a long list of champions at their own game and never been beaten whereas Aspinall has, and more than once. For Jones to feel like he has the advantage he studies the fighter vigorously and with Tom having so little cage time since arriving with the premier promotion it leads him to believe that’s a huge aspect of why Jones is stalling on declaring that he will in-fact fight him and not relinquish the belt in favour of a fight with Pereira if he is given that ultimatum; ultimate legacy fight with Tom Aspinall for undisputed heavyweight status or a fun ‘super fight’ with Alex Pereira for no title and considerably less money?
