Wade dives into the state of Jon Jones MMA Career and why the MASSIVE fight between him and Tom Aspinall has not yet happened..
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now let's go to what I originally wanted to talk
about today, because we're back on the way concept presented
by the Ring Magazine and folks, it is a day
in MMA that is bizarre. We have two heavyweight champions
of the world in the UFC right now and neither
of them are fighting. And while everybody is blamed John
(00:21):
Jones for not fighting Tom Aspinall, and there's a lot
of blame to go around there, the real blame for
the John Jones problem, for Tom Aspinall wasting a year
plus of his prime, has to go back on the
company itself. Has to go back on the UFC because
they are the real reason that their heavyweight division is
(00:43):
at a standstill. That we don't have any answers about
this fight, that we don't even know who the real
champion is because they will not concede and stand up
to John Jones, and I don't know why the breakdown.
Let's go if you guys, over the last couple of
days have seen John Jones has been living his best
(01:05):
life out in Thailand filming something I'm pretty sure or
I don't know if he's filming it or has filmed
it with Nate Diez and some Russian Ultimate fighter wanna
be show. He has been riding on the back of
mopeds and grasping men's hair whilst riding, and he's just
out here and enjoying his life, you know, fair play whatever.
But he's not getting ready for a fight. He's not
(01:28):
in any way showing interest in a fight. It's not
representing the UFC as their heavyweight champion. And let me
just let me just say this, because everybody wants to
just bury John Jones because of what's happening right now.
John Jones the greatest fighter it's ever lived, point blank period,
to me opinion, that's what I think. But what's happening
right now is a travesty to the travist And yes,
(01:50):
a lot of it is because of John Jones, but
more of it is because of the UFC and their
unwillingness to let go of short term gain for long
term bill evolution of the sport and ability to see
past the trees of the forest to the pasture behind.
They don't have that right now, and I don't know why.
I have some theories, but I don't know why. So
let let's talk about a couple of them. Number one,
(02:11):
let's go into to what has been said over the
last week by John Jones, right, because this story, we
could go back the last you know, since November, since
he beat Steve Bay. We could go back before that
and in the entire steep a fight happening while John
had an interim champion waiting on him. Tom Aspinall was
there waiting. We can go all the way back there,
but we're not. Let's go to the uh newest stuff
(02:32):
said from John Jones talking to somebody on FaceTime about
his next moves as a fighter. Well, man, I'm excited.
I'm excited to see your game. So you got ten years? Yeah,
I'm forward to seeing you again. Camille. You look Drake.
(02:53):
Let's say, let's do some business if you wanted. My
boldest prediction of twenty twenty five. I'm actually very confident
in the prediction, and that is that John Jones retires.
I mean, listen, Uncle Jail is not right a lot. Actually,
you know what, Uncle Jill's never wrong, I should say,
but I think he's got it right there, at least
for what we're hearing, John is saying he's done. And
the only thing I can take away from that is
(03:14):
exactly what he's saying. He is not in this moment
thinking about fighting. He does not care about fighting right now.
And because of that, you're seeing all this other stuff
that John has going on. Like I said, he's in Thailand,
he's doing other shows, he's talking to people. Let's do business,
Let's do business. There is no care about defending his
world title, because why would he. John is already apparently
(03:34):
made enough money to be very well off, made enough
money to invest and grow businesses, and made enough money
to tell the UFC, I am not coming back to
put my legacy on the line, to put my heavyweight
title on the line unless you pay me an exubered
amount of money. And I don't know if the UFC
has offered the amount he wants and he still is
saying no, or if the UFC is just not willing
(03:56):
to match what John wants, or if there's other things
at play that we'll get into in a second. But
the point I'm trying to make is that John is
essentially grabbing the UFC by the balls and saying I've
got you now. I know this is a weird comparison analogy,
but I've got you. Now do something and the UFC
is like, nah, I'd rather you just play with him
a little like that's that's what's happened. They're not doing
(04:17):
anything about it. Do we not remember back in twenty
seventeen with George Saint Pierre beat Michael Bisbee for the
middleweight belt, and I think in the postfight press or
he was having like I don't know if I'm gonna
defend this, I'm gonna take some time off and you know,
I don't know, maybe I'll retire, maybe I won't, And
they stripped him right there, like a day later, they
stripped him. Hey, George, you're not gonna hold this division up.
(04:38):
We appreciate you coming back and doing business with us.
Fantastic fight, We'll see you later. And George retire and
guess what The middleweight division moved on. Do you remember
who the next champion of the world is? After that
in the UFC Robert Whitaker, and guess what happened? The
division moved on. It moved it didn't stay in one position.
And guess what we built stars at least to a
(05:02):
degree out of that move, Robert Whitaker and Israe A
out of Sonya rivalry. Is there a lot of Sonya
and Kelvin Gastillon. Those things built into Izzy being the
next big dominant champion at the middleweight division. Imagine if
GSP holds that belt for a year, it just doesn't
fight the pure just stagnation of that division, and maybe
we don't even get the stars we get out of
(05:22):
that point. And that's the middleweight division that's not, in
my opinion, the most important division in combat sports. I
don't care if you agree with me or not. Historically,
especially in boxing, maybe not in the UFC, but that's
because their heavyweight division hasn't had a long standing massive
global stars since honestly brock Lessener on that level. But
(05:43):
you know, DC came in and Steepe had a great
run in Kane and all that. But the heavyweight division
should be your most important division. Is going to be
the most casual, fan friendly because you can claim baddest
man on the planet. It should be full of your
biggest draw although the UFC has had an issue with that.
Not many American heavyweights out there. It really toe the line,
but it should be your most important division. And right now,
the UFC's most important division is being jerked around by
(06:06):
John Jones and the UFC's just letting it happen. He's
told the UFC, let me find a tweet. Who I
come across as the type of guy who cares about
things like that talking about being stripped? Does he care
about things like that? And honestly, over John's career, he
hasn't cared about that. How many times John's been stripped,
like four or five times? And John's a big enough name.
If you stripped him and made Tom aspinall the actual champion,
(06:27):
and he starts wiping out the division, he's kind of
already done that. But let's just say he starts going
through the division again. Maybe Alex Pereira moves up and
he runs through him, whatever, and then John gets that itch.
Does it really matter that it's a champion versus champion
fight to anybody? No, it doesn't. John Jones versus Tom
aspinall for the belt is what matters if you ever
(06:49):
wanted to make that fight. It does not matter who
holds said belts when it's made. I could give about
champion versus interim. I could give a shit about that.
End up telling you now your casual fan doesn't care.
I'm baffled by why the UFC is doing this Now again,
we have more examples of what John is doing I'm
potentially trying to do in a tweet like this where
(07:09):
John is talking about, you know again, what he said,
y'all barking up the wrong tree here the UFC. I
told the UFC my plans a long time ago. I
have no clue why they haven't shared them with you
guys yet. This guy says, shut the cup and fight.
John says, this attitude right here is making me a
very wealthy man. This desperation is incredibly lucrative, So thank you.
Keep it coming. That tells me that John is told
(07:30):
the UFC, if you guys really want this fight, here's
my number. And maybe that number keeps increasing the longer
this thing goes. I don't know. Maybe he just continues
to drag the UFC along and see how much they'll
let him get get away with before they intervene and say, okay,
you're being unreasonable. We're gonna take our belt back. The
fight is not wanted because John is the champ. The
fight is wanted because John Jones is the greatest fighter ever.
(07:54):
And yes he holds the belt, but you take the
belt off John, and he's still from John Jones. He
didn't lose the belt. You can do that fight without
John being the sitting champion if you ever wanted to
make it. If the UFC is not willing to intervene
and say, you're giving us our belt back now because
you're being unreasonable, there's no reason for John to give
them the belt back. There's no reason for him to go, Yeah,
(08:14):
you know what, maybe I should just do what's best
for the company. Maybe I John Jones should do what's
best for the UFC and just give up my belt.
Why would he do that? Why would he? I wouldn't?
Would you? Would you, as an individual, if you stood
to make let's say thirty million is the number, because
that's what's been rumored. If you should to make thirty
million dollars in a fight versus Tom aspinall, as long
(08:34):
as the UFC isn't asking for their belt back, would
you voluntarily give it up? Or would you try to negotiate?
And if they're not willing to negotiate, but they're also
not asking for their belt, then why don't you just
go and do whatever you're doing and keep that in
your back pocket? Don't I don't. I don't have a
problem with that. If I'm John as a fan, yeah,
it sucks. I don't want the division to be on
hold like that. I would like to see the fight.
(08:55):
I do think that John is very apprehensive about fighting
Tom Aspinall. I'm not like everyone else that thinks that
Tom's just gonna beat the shit out of him. I
do think this fight's competitive. I do think there's ways
that John can win this fight. But I guess my
point is none of those things are the fault of
John Jones, outside of as a fan selfishly wanting to
fight to happen in him negotiating for himself. The UFC
has to put their foot down and say this is
(09:17):
our promotion, that is our belts, and if you are
not willing to defend it is time to take our
belt back. And I just don't know why they haven't done.
This is no longer John Jones's fault for Tom Aspinall,
and the people are blaming John Jones, like, oh, you're
the reason, You're the reason. You could say John's scared,
that's what you want to say. But when he is
rattling off stuff like this right here, I don't know
if I want to call it retired, as this guy said,
(09:40):
has it feel to be retired? I don't know if
I want to call it retired. I feel like I'll
always have the ability to pop out and show him.
I've had many breaks throughout my career. My identity outside
of fighting is well intact, and I'm genuinely enjoying life
and growing in different ways. That's that's great, that's awesome.
If that doesn't tell you that he is not interested
in fighting, he's not training, there's no movement in the division.
(10:02):
What in the are we doing? He said, I've told
the UFC that my plans. I don't know why they're not.
I'm not retired, but I'm not interested in fighting Mountain Thailand,
doing whatever the I want. I'm doing my own thing
and I'm enjoying live. What are we doing? So listen,
I think this is only a couple of things that
could be going on. Number one, well, let's just read
the tweet I made on this. I said, at this point,
(10:22):
the damaging of Tom Aspinall's career is on the UFC.
John is saying he's at least on an extended break
and has no timeline of returning. He stated he doesn't
care about being stripped, and the UFC has quote known
as plans for a while. Now, why are the UFC
keeping the belts on him tv rights negotiations tried every
last option for the December card. I'm not sure, but
strip him and move on. Two things. Number One, I
(10:44):
think the UFC right now has a lot of things
up their sleeve. I think they have a lot of
things they want to bring to a TV rights negotiation
because they're in the middle of that right now. Maybe
potentially a kickoff to that deal being a John Jones
Tom Aspinall fight in the early part of twenty twenty
six could be something that they're dangling in front of
(11:05):
whatever suitor they have. Because everybody used assumes that this fight,
if it's gonna happen, is gonna be done before twenty
twenty five is over. Now, I don't know that that's
the case, because if that was the case, they could
have already had the fight done. It's supposed to been
done in the summer than the fall. But if they
are looking to start off their TV rights, their new
TV deal, whatever it's gonna be, ESPN, Netflix, wherever they
go with a bang, what's a bigger fight than John Jones,
(11:28):
Tom Aspitall. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe it's a
hurry up and wait situation to where they can get
the first big fight card on their new contract to
be their heavyweight title unification. That's what I'm saying. I
don't know why they wouldn't inform Tom Aspinall, because it
seems like Tom has some things he knows, but genuinely,
it seems like he has more questions and answers. Let's
(11:49):
take a look at this clip from Tom's interview on
Mighty Mouse's channel.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I've been almost a year inacxive with no prospects of
anything apart from weight. Yeah, so now he's actually a
little bit more of a tricky time for me mentally
than it was then. And that's kind of difficult, like
mentally to it to be like and.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
But this is the.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
This is the fight against John Jones, Like not the
fight is another thing. Yeah, this is the tricky bit
where I really have to stay switched on, stay motivated,
and I'm trying my best. I'm trying. It's tough sometimes, especially.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Like listen to the way he talks. Let's just go
back and listen to the first part again.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Now, I've been almost a year inactive with no prospects
of anything apart from wait.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yeah, that's all he knows right now, wait for what again?
My theory they're gonna wait until that new TV rights deal.
That's the only thing I can When he says I
have no prospects other than wait, that has to be it,
because what else are you waiting for? Is thirty million
dollars is gonna pop out of the sky for John Jones.
(12:57):
They have the money to pay him right now. They
have a car in December they need to fill. They're
into the year card. It's their biggest card of the year.
If they're still saying wait and this wasn't this interview
was recorded last week right with Mighty Mouse and Tom
aspinall the UFC would already have talks of what they're
doing towards the end of the year, especially if it's
going to be Tom Aspenall, their heavyweight interim champion going
(13:18):
against John their heavyweight champ. This has to be it.
Either that or they genuinely can't get John Jones to
come to the play. Genuinely, they can't get him to
come to the table and make a deal, and they
still believe that they will be able to do it right.
They're not able to get him to say yes to anything,
but they're still trying. But having Tom on the sidelines,
waiting and waiting while you go back and forth with
(13:40):
John Jones, not knowing if you're actually gonna get him,
not knowing if the offer you're making or the negotiations
you're having are actually gonna come through, will absolutely destroy
the heavyweight division and the potential stardom of Tom Aspenall.
This is why I say the UFC is so focused
on this short term potential gain and ignoring the long
term sce excess of potential heavyweight matchups and longevity and
(14:04):
legacy of what could be with Tom Aspinall could be
for this this one big moment that may or may
not launch him, or you may or may not ever
get It's just bizarre to me. Like yet, it would
be great for Tom Aspinall to beat John Jones and
then have that rocket ship him to the moon, but
would also be great for Tom Aspinall to build his
career through making big time strides at heavyweight, cleaning out
(14:27):
the division, and becoming a dominant champion, which he has
no opportunity to do because his entire career is on
hold right now for John Jones and the whims of
John Jones and realistically the whims of the UFC, because
they're not willing to part with the other guy that
made his legacy the greatest legacy in the history of
combat sports through doing the thing that Tom wants to do.
Did John Jones have blockbuster matchup after blockbuster matchup where
(14:51):
we waited for a double title fight, where we needed
a certain name inserted, where we needed legacy after No,
he just ran through everybody in his de time after
time after time to build his name, and then he
got an ingrained rivalry with Daniel Cormier at the end
of it and built that into a blockbuster fight. Yeah,
legends were there along the way, show Gun was there,
(15:11):
Rampage was there. There were so many massive names of
the era before him, and then the gust of some
fight for Shot Evans, all those fights. But he just
did it in a congruent way that built it. Didn't
do this whole weight around thing that we've done, not
just with Tom and John, but John and Stepey that's
also affected John. As we sit here, the only thing
(15:33):
I can think is that the UFC is waiting until
twenty twenty six. They thought maybe we could get this
done in twenty twenty five and you know, boosts our
numbers going into TV rights negotiations. But they're already negotiating,
so there is no way to boost the numbers that
you could potentially show a suitor to bring you to
the new TV rights deal. Now you're just waiting again
(15:54):
the big term. You're waiting for the new deal to start,
and that you started off right in quarter one, that's
all I can think. Or that John's just told the UFC, yeah,
maybe I'll come back if the number's right, and he
keeps giving him the run around. But at that point
you have to put your foot down. This has been
the whole thing the UFC has built themselves into is
being the logo is the cell, the UFC is the star.
(16:16):
Is that right or wrong? For the business? People can
have their opinions, but if you're going to go that route,
then you strip them and you move on and you
build your next big star. Otherwise we'll be here again
in a year. The simplest problem with the most simple solution,
but for some reason they just won't do it, and
I think again they see this as a short term,
big pop moment. I think it's a sacrifice for long
term potential game. That's what I think. That's the John
(16:38):
Jones problem to me, it's not even necessarily just him,
but the UFC is loading the gun up and shooting
themselves in the foot by wasting the prime years of
Tom aspinall just having him wait for something they don't
even know that they're going to get. That's sad. But
what happens next in this will he won't he fight thing?
For John Jones? Is he really retired? Honestly, I don't
(17:01):
think John comes back anytime soon uns unless something changes
or my prediction on this whole TV rights thing is correct,
I don't see him coming back, at least not in
twenty twenty five. You guys let me know what you
think down below, and I guess we'll find out
Now let's go to what I originally wanted to talk
about today, because we're back on the way concept presented
by the Ring Magazine and folks, it is a day
in MMA that is bizarre. We have two heavyweight champions
of the world in the UFC right now and neither
of them are fighting. And while everybody is blamed John
(00:21):
Jones for not fighting Tom Aspinall, and there's a lot
of blame to go around there, the real blame for
the John Jones problem, for Tom Aspinall wasting a year
plus of his prime, has to go back on the
company itself. Has to go back on the UFC because
they are the real reason that their heavyweight division is
(00:43):
at a standstill. That we don't have any answers about
this fight, that we don't even know who the real
champion is because they will not concede and stand up
to John Jones, and I don't know why the breakdown.
Let's go if you guys, over the last couple of
days have seen John Jones has been living his best
(01:05):
life out in Thailand filming something I'm pretty sure or
I don't know if he's filming it or has filmed
it with Nate Diez and some Russian Ultimate fighter wanna
be show. He has been riding on the back of
mopeds and grasping men's hair whilst riding, and he's just
out here and enjoying his life, you know, fair play whatever.
But he's not getting ready for a fight. He's not
(01:28):
in any way showing interest in a fight. It's not
representing the UFC as their heavyweight champion. And let me
just let me just say this, because everybody wants to
just bury John Jones because of what's happening right now.
John Jones the greatest fighter it's ever lived, point blank period,
to me opinion, that's what I think. But what's happening
right now is a travesty to the travist And yes,
(01:50):
a lot of it is because of John Jones, but
more of it is because of the UFC and their
unwillingness to let go of short term gain for long
term bill evolution of the sport and ability to see
past the trees of the forest to the pasture behind.
They don't have that right now, and I don't know why.
I have some theories, but I don't know why. So
let let's talk about a couple of them. Number one,
(02:11):
let's go into to what has been said over the
last week by John Jones, right, because this story, we
could go back the last you know, since November, since
he beat Steve Bay. We could go back before that
and in the entire steep a fight happening while John
had an interim champion waiting on him. Tom Aspinall was
there waiting. We can go all the way back there,
but we're not. Let's go to the uh newest stuff
(02:32):
said from John Jones talking to somebody on FaceTime about
his next moves as a fighter. Well, man, I'm excited.
I'm excited to see your game. So you got ten years? Yeah,
I'm forward to seeing you again. Camille. You look Drake.
(02:53):
Let's say, let's do some business if you wanted. My
boldest prediction of twenty twenty five. I'm actually very confident
in the prediction, and that is that John Jones retires.
I mean, listen, Uncle Jail is not right a lot. Actually,
you know what, Uncle Jill's never wrong, I should say,
but I think he's got it right there, at least
for what we're hearing, John is saying he's done. And
the only thing I can take away from that is
(03:14):
exactly what he's saying. He is not in this moment
thinking about fighting. He does not care about fighting right now.
And because of that, you're seeing all this other stuff
that John has going on. Like I said, he's in Thailand,
he's doing other shows, he's talking to people. Let's do business,
Let's do business. There is no care about defending his
world title, because why would he. John is already apparently
(03:34):
made enough money to be very well off, made enough
money to invest and grow businesses, and made enough money
to tell the UFC, I am not coming back to
put my legacy on the line, to put my heavyweight
title on the line unless you pay me an exubered
amount of money. And I don't know if the UFC
has offered the amount he wants and he still is
saying no, or if the UFC is just not willing
(03:56):
to match what John wants, or if there's other things
at play that we'll get into in a second. But
the point I'm trying to make is that John is
essentially grabbing the UFC by the balls and saying I've
got you now. I know this is a weird comparison analogy,
but I've got you. Now do something and the UFC
is like, nah, I'd rather you just play with him
a little like that's that's what's happened. They're not doing
(04:17):
anything about it. Do we not remember back in twenty
seventeen with George Saint Pierre beat Michael Bisbee for the
middleweight belt, and I think in the postfight press or
he was having like I don't know if I'm gonna
defend this, I'm gonna take some time off and you know,
I don't know, maybe I'll retire, maybe I won't, And
they stripped him right there, like a day later, they
stripped him. Hey, George, you're not gonna hold this division up.
(04:38):
We appreciate you coming back and doing business with us.
Fantastic fight, We'll see you later. And George retire and
guess what The middleweight division moved on. Do you remember
who the next champion of the world is? After that
in the UFC Robert Whitaker, and guess what happened? The
division moved on. It moved it didn't stay in one position.
And guess what we built stars at least to a
(05:02):
degree out of that move, Robert Whitaker and Israe A
out of Sonya rivalry. Is there a lot of Sonya
and Kelvin Gastillon. Those things built into Izzy being the
next big dominant champion at the middleweight division. Imagine if
GSP holds that belt for a year, it just doesn't
fight the pure just stagnation of that division, and maybe
we don't even get the stars we get out of
(05:22):
that point. And that's the middleweight division that's not, in
my opinion, the most important division in combat sports. I
don't care if you agree with me or not. Historically,
especially in boxing, maybe not in the UFC, but that's
because their heavyweight division hasn't had a long standing massive
global stars since honestly brock Lessener on that level. But
(05:43):
you know, DC came in and Steepe had a great
run in Kane and all that. But the heavyweight division
should be your most important division. Is going to be
the most casual, fan friendly because you can claim baddest
man on the planet. It should be full of your
biggest draw although the UFC has had an issue with that.
Not many American heavyweights out there. It really toe the line,
but it should be your most important division. And right now,
the UFC's most important division is being jerked around by
(06:06):
John Jones and the UFC's just letting it happen. He's
told the UFC, let me find a tweet. Who I
come across as the type of guy who cares about
things like that talking about being stripped? Does he care
about things like that? And honestly, over John's career, he
hasn't cared about that. How many times John's been stripped,
like four or five times? And John's a big enough name.
If you stripped him and made Tom aspinall the actual champion,
(06:27):
and he starts wiping out the division, he's kind of
already done that. But let's just say he starts going
through the division again. Maybe Alex Pereira moves up and
he runs through him, whatever, and then John gets that itch.
Does it really matter that it's a champion versus champion
fight to anybody? No, it doesn't. John Jones versus Tom
aspinall for the belt is what matters if you ever
(06:49):
wanted to make that fight. It does not matter who
holds said belts when it's made. I could give about
champion versus interim. I could give a shit about that.
End up telling you now your casual fan doesn't care.
I'm baffled by why the UFC is doing this Now again,
we have more examples of what John is doing I'm
potentially trying to do in a tweet like this where
(07:09):
John is talking about, you know again, what he said,
y'all barking up the wrong tree here the UFC. I
told the UFC my plans a long time ago. I
have no clue why they haven't shared them with you
guys yet. This guy says, shut the cup and fight.
John says, this attitude right here is making me a
very wealthy man. This desperation is incredibly lucrative, So thank you.
Keep it coming. That tells me that John is told
(07:30):
the UFC, if you guys really want this fight, here's
my number. And maybe that number keeps increasing the longer
this thing goes. I don't know. Maybe he just continues
to drag the UFC along and see how much they'll
let him get get away with before they intervene and say, okay,
you're being unreasonable. We're gonna take our belt back. The
fight is not wanted because John is the champ. The
fight is wanted because John Jones is the greatest fighter ever.
(07:54):
And yes he holds the belt, but you take the
belt off John, and he's still from John Jones. He
didn't lose the belt. You can do that fight without
John being the sitting champion if you ever wanted to
make it. If the UFC is not willing to intervene
and say, you're giving us our belt back now because
you're being unreasonable, there's no reason for John to give
them the belt back. There's no reason for him to go, Yeah,
(08:14):
you know what, maybe I should just do what's best
for the company. Maybe I John Jones should do what's
best for the UFC and just give up my belt.
Why would he do that? Why would he? I wouldn't?
Would you? Would you, as an individual, if you stood
to make let's say thirty million is the number, because
that's what's been rumored. If you should to make thirty
million dollars in a fight versus Tom aspinall, as long
(08:34):
as the UFC isn't asking for their belt back, would
you voluntarily give it up? Or would you try to negotiate?
And if they're not willing to negotiate, but they're also
not asking for their belt, then why don't you just
go and do whatever you're doing and keep that in
your back pocket? Don't I don't. I don't have a
problem with that. If I'm John as a fan, yeah,
it sucks. I don't want the division to be on
hold like that. I would like to see the fight.
(08:55):
I do think that John is very apprehensive about fighting
Tom Aspinall. I'm not like everyone else that thinks that
Tom's just gonna beat the shit out of him. I
do think this fight's competitive. I do think there's ways
that John can win this fight. But I guess my
point is none of those things are the fault of
John Jones, outside of as a fan selfishly wanting to
fight to happen in him negotiating for himself. The UFC
has to put their foot down and say this is
(09:17):
our promotion, that is our belts, and if you are
not willing to defend it is time to take our
belt back. And I just don't know why they haven't done.
This is no longer John Jones's fault for Tom Aspinall,
and the people are blaming John Jones, like, oh, you're
the reason, You're the reason. You could say John's scared,
that's what you want to say. But when he is
rattling off stuff like this right here, I don't know
if I want to call it retired, as this guy said,
(09:40):
has it feel to be retired? I don't know if
I want to call it retired. I feel like I'll
always have the ability to pop out and show him.
I've had many breaks throughout my career. My identity outside
of fighting is well intact, and I'm genuinely enjoying life
and growing in different ways. That's that's great, that's awesome.
If that doesn't tell you that he is not interested
in fighting, he's not training, there's no movement in the division.
(10:02):
What in the are we doing? He said, I've told
the UFC that my plans. I don't know why they're not.
I'm not retired, but I'm not interested in fighting Mountain Thailand,
doing whatever the I want. I'm doing my own thing
and I'm enjoying live. What are we doing? So listen,
I think this is only a couple of things that
could be going on. Number one, well, let's just read
the tweet I made on this. I said, at this point,
(10:22):
the damaging of Tom Aspinall's career is on the UFC.
John is saying he's at least on an extended break
and has no timeline of returning. He stated he doesn't
care about being stripped, and the UFC has quote known
as plans for a while. Now, why are the UFC
keeping the belts on him tv rights negotiations tried every
last option for the December card. I'm not sure, but
strip him and move on. Two things. Number One, I
(10:44):
think the UFC right now has a lot of things
up their sleeve. I think they have a lot of
things they want to bring to a TV rights negotiation
because they're in the middle of that right now. Maybe
potentially a kickoff to that deal being a John Jones
Tom Aspinall fight in the early part of twenty twenty
six could be something that they're dangling in front of
(11:05):
whatever suitor they have. Because everybody used assumes that this fight,
if it's gonna happen, is gonna be done before twenty
twenty five is over. Now, I don't know that that's
the case, because if that was the case, they could
have already had the fight done. It's supposed to been
done in the summer than the fall. But if they
are looking to start off their TV rights, their new
TV deal, whatever it's gonna be, ESPN, Netflix, wherever they
go with a bang, what's a bigger fight than John Jones,
(11:28):
Tom Aspitall. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe it's a
hurry up and wait situation to where they can get
the first big fight card on their new contract to
be their heavyweight title unification. That's what I'm saying. I
don't know why they wouldn't inform Tom Aspinall, because it
seems like Tom has some things he knows, but genuinely,
it seems like he has more questions and answers. Let's
(11:49):
take a look at this clip from Tom's interview on
Mighty Mouse's channel.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I've been almost a year inacxive with no prospects of
anything apart from weight. Yeah, so now he's actually a
little bit more of a tricky time for me mentally
than it was then. And that's kind of difficult, like
mentally to it to be like and.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
But this is the.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
This is the fight against John Jones, Like not the
fight is another thing. Yeah, this is the tricky bit
where I really have to stay switched on, stay motivated,
and I'm trying my best. I'm trying. It's tough sometimes, especially.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Like listen to the way he talks. Let's just go
back and listen to the first part again.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Now, I've been almost a year inactive with no prospects
of anything apart from wait.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yeah, that's all he knows right now, wait for what again?
My theory they're gonna wait until that new TV rights deal.
That's the only thing I can When he says I
have no prospects other than wait, that has to be it,
because what else are you waiting for? Is thirty million
dollars is gonna pop out of the sky for John Jones.
(12:57):
They have the money to pay him right now. They
have a car in December they need to fill. They're
into the year card. It's their biggest card of the year.
If they're still saying wait and this wasn't this interview
was recorded last week right with Mighty Mouse and Tom
aspinall the UFC would already have talks of what they're
doing towards the end of the year, especially if it's
going to be Tom Aspenall, their heavyweight interim champion going
(13:18):
against John their heavyweight champ. This has to be it.
Either that or they genuinely can't get John Jones to
come to the play. Genuinely, they can't get him to
come to the table and make a deal, and they
still believe that they will be able to do it right.
They're not able to get him to say yes to anything,
but they're still trying. But having Tom on the sidelines,
waiting and waiting while you go back and forth with
(13:40):
John Jones, not knowing if you're actually gonna get him,
not knowing if the offer you're making or the negotiations
you're having are actually gonna come through, will absolutely destroy
the heavyweight division and the potential stardom of Tom Aspenall.
This is why I say the UFC is so focused
on this short term potential gain and ignoring the long
term sce excess of potential heavyweight matchups and longevity and
(14:04):
legacy of what could be with Tom Aspinall could be
for this this one big moment that may or may
not launch him, or you may or may not ever
get It's just bizarre to me. Like yet, it would
be great for Tom Aspinall to beat John Jones and
then have that rocket ship him to the moon, but
would also be great for Tom Aspinall to build his
career through making big time strides at heavyweight, cleaning out
(14:27):
the division, and becoming a dominant champion, which he has
no opportunity to do because his entire career is on
hold right now for John Jones and the whims of
John Jones and realistically the whims of the UFC, because
they're not willing to part with the other guy that
made his legacy the greatest legacy in the history of
combat sports through doing the thing that Tom wants to do.
Did John Jones have blockbuster matchup after blockbuster matchup where
(14:51):
we waited for a double title fight, where we needed
a certain name inserted, where we needed legacy after No,
he just ran through everybody in his de time after
time after time to build his name, and then he
got an ingrained rivalry with Daniel Cormier at the end
of it and built that into a blockbuster fight. Yeah,
legends were there along the way, show Gun was there,
(15:11):
Rampage was there. There were so many massive names of
the era before him, and then the gust of some
fight for Shot Evans, all those fights. But he just
did it in a congruent way that built it. Didn't
do this whole weight around thing that we've done, not
just with Tom and John, but John and Stepey that's
also affected John. As we sit here, the only thing
(15:33):
I can think is that the UFC is waiting until
twenty twenty six. They thought maybe we could get this
done in twenty twenty five and you know, boosts our
numbers going into TV rights negotiations. But they're already negotiating,
so there is no way to boost the numbers that
you could potentially show a suitor to bring you to
the new TV rights deal. Now you're just waiting again
(15:54):
the big term. You're waiting for the new deal to start,
and that you started off right in quarter one, that's
all I can think. Or that John's just told the UFC, yeah,
maybe I'll come back if the number's right, and he
keeps giving him the run around. But at that point
you have to put your foot down. This has been
the whole thing the UFC has built themselves into is
being the logo is the cell, the UFC is the star.
(16:16):
Is that right or wrong? For the business? People can
have their opinions, but if you're going to go that route,
then you strip them and you move on and you
build your next big star. Otherwise we'll be here again
in a year. The simplest problem with the most simple solution,
but for some reason they just won't do it, and
I think again they see this as a short term,
big pop moment. I think it's a sacrifice for long
term potential game. That's what I think. That's the John
(16:38):
Jones problem to me, it's not even necessarily just him,
but the UFC is loading the gun up and shooting
themselves in the foot by wasting the prime years of
Tom aspinall just having him wait for something they don't
even know that they're going to get. That's sad. But
what happens next in this will he won't he fight thing?
For John Jones? Is he really retired? Honestly, I don't
(17:01):
think John comes back anytime soon uns unless something changes
or my prediction on this whole TV rights thing is correct,
I don't see him coming back, at least not in
twenty twenty five. You guys let me know what you
think down below, and I guess we'll find out
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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