Tom Aspinall believes Jon Jones was praying to lose to Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 last month.
UFC interim heavyweight champion Aspinall of England faced Blaydes in the co-main event of the card. Blaydes successfully defended his title by defeating the American by knockout in the first round.
Jones, who holds the promotion’s undisputed heavyweight title but has not fought since winning the vacant belt with a submission loss to Ciryl Gane early last year, has not said much about Aspinall’s fight with Blaydes.
Aspinall believes it would have been different if he had lost.
“Jon Jones was praying that I would lose that fight against Curtis Blaydes, praying that I would,” Aspinall told UFC analysts Michael Bisping and Anthony Smith on the Believe You Me podcast. “There’s nowhere you can find publicly, anywhere, that he says he’ll fight me. It doesn’t exist. I defy anyone watching this interview to find one statement, one quote, one video, where Jon Jones says he’ll fight me after I’ve fought Stipe. It doesn’t exist.
“We know he’s a little overweight these days. The guy was sitting there [watching my fight] with Cheetos on his fingers, Doritos on his fingers, iPhone in hand, waiting for me to knock him out so he could start tweeting about it.
“Ever since I won that fight, he’s been completely silent.”
Aspinall believes Jones’ silence will continue until he retires.
“He’s going to be completely silent on me until he retires, because there’s no way he’s going to fight me,” he said. “There’s no chance. I’ll retire Jon Jones without even fighting him.”
Normally, the UFC would pit Aspinall and Jones against each other as quickly as possible to unify their heavyweight titles, but in a rare break from protocol, the promotion is set to pit Jones against 42-year-old former champion Stipe Miocic, who has not fought since a knockout loss to Francis Ngannou in 2021.
The fight is currently unscheduled but is still in the works, according to the latest update from UFC CEO Dana White.
Aspinall has the utmost respect for the achievements of Jones and Miocic, but can’t help but shake his head at the planned showdown.
“Dana White can say what he wants, those guys are not the best heavyweights in the world right now,” he said. “I’m not saying they haven’t had amazing careers, because I idolize them. I want to have a career like that, that’s what I aspire to do with my life, what they’ve done, but they’re not the best right now. Right now, they’re definitely not the best, so let’s stop talking about all this.” [expletive] “just as they are.”
