Will Jon Jones retire after defending his heavyweight title for the first time against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 on November 16? It would be a perfect night, there’s no place like Madison Square Garden to hang up your boots and call it a day. It all depends on Miocic, if Jones is to be believed.
The UFC undisputed heavyweight champion of the world is of the opinion that if he can succeed in his goal of making the Miocic fight look easy, he could push his career further just out of curiosity to see how far he can go. But at the same time, he’s not that concerned about it.
Jones won his first world title in the UFC at 23, and at 37, he’s still a world champion, which is why he doesn’t believe he has anything to prove to anyone.
“I am really happy with the career I have had. I have accomplished enough.”
Jones believes people can sometimes get caught up in work and always need more but Jones has been educating himself to be better.
“I am really teaching myself to be proud of what I have already done and the man I have become.”
Truth be told, he is right. But then again, Jones did make his name fighting legends so it’s unfair for him not to extend the same courtesy to younger fighters in the division. UFC interim champion Tom Aspinall has been rightfully asking for his title unification fight to determine the true king of the division but Jones has been keen on fighting just about anybody else.
Why not Aspinall?
Jones claims that Aspinall just hasn’t done enough to warrant a fight with him. Firstly, that’s not true. Being an interim champion is enough to fight the original champion and decide on the undisputed champion.
Secondly, before he fought Shogun Rua for the light heavyweight title, Jones had 6 wins from 7 fights and 4 finishes. Aspinall right now has 8 wins from 9 fights with 8 finishes and two title fights, one of which was a title defense fight, of which Jones has none at heavyweight.
Clearly, even by the high standards Jones has set, Aspinall passes with flying colors.
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According to Jones, fans would rather love to see him fight light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. Truthfully, since Jones has fought just about once in the last 3-4 years, fans would just be happy to see him fight. Besides, Pereira, no longer harbors heavyweight ambitions, at least for now.
So, why not Aspinall? Going by their reaction to his statement about not wanting to fight him, fans have been anything but kind to Jones. So they will buy the tickets to see if Jon Jones is locked in a room with Tom Aspinall, will he still be the man that comes out?
