Dana White can be armed to the teeth with a shield and sword, defending Jon Jones’ P4P mettle. But will pound-for-pound listing matter long if he’s no longer active? Jones’ plan has long been to beat Stipe Miocic and then retire. After endless harassment from UFC fans, will he return to it? The fighter cues in an answer.
‘Bones’ will expectedly defend the UFC heavyweight title at UFC 309. During an interview with MMA columnist Kevin Iole, White mentioned Stipe Miocic would retire after what essentially is a legacy billing. The big question has always been whether Jon Jones has kept on HW title logjam with similar intentions. In a random interaction with fans, Jones now bursts the bubble by saying he might.
@noah.anderson3 Fun fact after this year Jon Jones will never have to work again,” Jones wrote. “Retired at age 37. Winning
Jon Jones via X (@jonnyBones)
While answering some fan trash-talking, ‘Bones’ implied he had no intentions of unifying the heavyweight championship against interim belt holder Tom Aspinall. Aspinall dispatched Curtis Blaydes in R1 via knockout (punches) in last month’s UFC 304 headliner. After which, he doubled down on unifying the interim gold with the undisputed heavyweight title holder.
Jones continues to downplay a Tom Aspinall fight for now. Unless backed by a solid resume and stats, he sees no need to dip into the deep end after a Stipe Miocic legacy fight already propels him in the HW GOAT debate. Despite Jon Jones making the ESPN SportsCentury project list of ‘Top 100’ athletes recently, he is a +130 betting underdog to Aspinall. This only makes him dig in on retiring on top with a bigger priority. As such, there are some running ideas about this.
Ben Askren questions why Dana White isn’t billing Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall
Tom Aspinall has quickly risen as a new breed of 265lber with an outstanding skill set. Per statleaders.ufc.com (UFC Record Book), he has the shortest average fight time, shortest bottom position and percentage, and second-highest knockdown average per minute. This means that though he lacks battle experience in drawn-out affairs, he won’t stay down and can blow away almost anyone.
Dana White and Jon Jones avoiding competition? (Source: the-sun.co.uk/X)Skill-to-skill, pitting him against Jon Jones to crack the new vs. old debate makes the most sense. After UFC 304, Dana White opened up to the idea that Aspinall faces the winner of Jones vs. Stipe Miocic. However, even so, in the sitdown with Iole for his site, he said the Brit does not deserve as many legacy privileges as Jones does, being undefeated for sixteen years.
The interim heavyweight champion has gone on a rampage in the division. But ‘Bones’ and the bossman have not urged to sell out the billing. Ben Askren quips Jon Jones could have some ‘dirt’ on Dana White, allowing him to avoid all major matchups that make sense.
I almost feel like Jon has some dirt on Dana, because Dana generally would not put up with this type of behavior…This is what the UFC is founded on, where boxing wasn’t; we want the best guys to fight, we want to see who the actual best guy is, we don’t wanna waste time with shenanigans, we don’t want to pad records, to go to 40-0, we don’t do that…
Ben Askren via ‘Funky and the Champ’, 🎥: @DC_MMA on YT
While nothing is official, the UFC CEO has made it abundantly clear that Miocic will challenge Jones, 37, for the HW title. All the while the self-indulgent Jon Jones doubles down on retiring after one meager maiden defense and a ginormous payout. All in all, a win for Jones might not be a win for the division.
