Ah Jon Jones, he is one of those guys that I kind of like and kind of hate. He is always a joy to watch when he is in the Octagon, yet his antics away from the actual fights is something of legend, and most of that legend is bad. Between alcohol and drug problems, hit and run accidents, and regularly getting busted with drugs of some sort (ok, it was just 2 times) he has a litany of offenses that mostly don't have anything to do with combat sports. For the most part he is well-behaved outside of the continued conflict that he had with Daniel Cormier at pressers that resulted on backdrops being destroyed and also to the two of them having interviews only in separate rooms or perhaps even addresses.
Jones is a dangerous man that is for sure but a lot of people are getting a bit frustrated about his "reign" as heavyweight champion because he hasn't ever defended it and recently, completely dismissed calls from interim champion Tom Aspinall, who regularly calls out Jon Jones for a fight but Jones has never even responded to the claims that Tom makes that Jones is "dodging a fight with him." Well, that was until recently when Jon Jones made a series of Tweets that kind of shut the whole conversation down.
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Jones was supposed to face off against Stipe Miocic to defend his belt that he won from the most boring heavyweight UFC has ever known, Ciryl Gane. That was back in March of last year. Here we are, in the back end of 2024 and there doesn't seem to be any attention being paid to unifying the heavyweight belts at all either on the part of Jones or even UFC. To me this just seems wrong because when Jones fights Miocic in November, should that fight actually end up happening, that there is talk that Jon will come to the octagon with a belt. How is Jones the champ when he has been missing for so long that it was necessary to declare an interim champion that is Tom Aspinall?
Tom has already defended his belt once, albeit against Curtis Blaydes, who I do NOT think should ever be a heavyweight contender. The heavyweight division is seriously lacking in actual talent right now and Jones was meant to be the answer to that but it is difficult to consider a division "stacked" when the guy who is at the top of the list doesn't even fight anyone.
Jones had this to say
"Now, magically, I’m ducking a fight that’s never been negotiated or discussed at any table that matters. Lol I’m sticking to my plans, Jon Jones jumps for no one. How many belts does one need? How many times do I have to break my own record?
I don't think that fighting to unify the championship belt should ever be considered "jumping for someone." This is what has been done basically every single time that a belt is vacated due to inactivity on the part of a champion.
Jon Jones has always been protected by Dana White and the rest of UFC because he is a good earner. Nearly any other fighter would have been let go many years ago when Jones was getting into a ton of legal trouble in his personal life.
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His constant use of eye-poking just kind of gets brushed to the side whereas other combatants would be punished by the UFC if they were to use this as a regular part of their arsenal. Jones gets away with it because he is a golden boy of the UFC. This is also why he gets to dictate who he will fight and when. I'm a bit annoyed that Jones seems to have the ability to just completely brush off a legitimate champion that is Tom Aspinall just because: Reasons.
Jones has referred to Aspinall as a "random" in a recent Tweet as well where he addressed Aspinall's accusations of him ducking a fight with Aspinall.
"That video was recorded well over a year ago. That was recorded before I got injured, before there was an intern champion crowned. I had already voiced that I wasn’t interested in anymore randoms.
How is Aspinall a "random?" He is the champion and I think that if UFC was just concerned about getting pay-per-view buys that more people would be interested in champ vs. champ rather than Jones vs. whoever Jones wants to fight.
UFC is more about politics and showboating these days than it is about who is actually the best and the fact that the individual fighters have so much choice over who they want to fight, instead of who they SHOULD fight, is disappointing to me.