Ahead of his first fight in almost a year, Curtis Blaydes has offered his two cents on the Jon Jones debacle. Blaydes has endured a frustrating time in the UFC since his last fight at UFC 304 the previous July. The American challenged Tom Aspinall for his interim championship, losing via KO in the first round.
Since then, Blaydes has been trying to nail down Rizvan Kuniev for a heavyweight bout. The fight with the Dagestani, who is making his first UFC appearance, has been rescheduled or cancelled three times. But the pair will finally lock horns this weekend at UFC on ABC 8 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Aspinall, who has held the interim title for almost 20 months, has grown increasingly frustrated with Jones’ constant ducking of their heavyweight title fight. Jones’ behavior has drawn mass criticism and outrage from the UFC fanbase, too, with an official petition to strip ‘Bones’ of his title created last month.
The petition looks set to break the 200,000 signature mark in the coming weeks and made further headlines when Tom Aspinall shared a link to the petition via his Instagram story.
Speaking ahead of his UFC debut, Rizvan Kuniev voiced his distaste at Jones and the UFC’s approach to his behavior, calling for the promotion to strip him of the title.
“Him having the belt, him refusing to fight Aspinall, it just halts the division,” argued Blaydes. “It makes it impossible for any one of us to have any future projections. How can I project, when who knows whose got the real belt? Whose got the undisputed belt? We need to get to the bottom of that.
“My answer is you strip him. It’s not that hard. If that p*sses him off, maybe that’ll get him to fight. If not, he just retires, which is alright also. He’s the GOAT, he doesn’t have to fight. But if he wants to hold onto that belt, he needs to fight.”
The 200k signature petition: will fan pressure force Dana White to pull the trigger?
With fans and fighters criticizing Dana White’s GOAT, Jon Jones, at every opportunity, the pressure to make a decision on his future as champion grows with each passing day.
But whether White strips Jones of his championship remains a tough question to answer.
Despite his sporadic appearances since the turn of the decade, Jones’ GOAT status and marketability make him a valuable property to the UFC brass. But hardcore fans will look beyond that, pointing to the atrophy that is setting into the heavyweight division. Tired of waiting for White to act, the fans have taken the destiny of the UFC into their own hands.
Launching a petition that is now closing in on 200,000 signatures, the message is clear: the UFC fans want Jon Jones to be stripped of the heavyweight title. White’s hesitation is understandable. Strip Jones of his title, and it leaves his legacy hanging in the balance. That decision would also acknowledge the UFC’s mishandling of the entire saga, damaging the promotion in the process.
And it’s not just Aspinall who’s being affected. There are a number of viable contenders whose momentum is being slowed by Jones’ ducking. The Aspinall/Jones bout remains a make-or-break situation for the heavyweight division. Book the fight, and it breathes new life into a faltering division. If the saga stretches into 2026, it could seriously weaken the authority of the UFC brass throughout the promotion.
