Jon Jones is considered the greatest to ever lace up the fingerless gloves, at the very least by UFC CEO Dana White, who, it is safe to say, knows a few things about the sport. But, this hasn’t stopped fans from accusing ‘Bones’, the reigning heavyweight champion, of being ‘scared’ to fight the extraordinarily talented interim champ, Tom Aspinall. After all, ‘Bones’ has been dogged in turning up his nose at the prospect of facing the Englishman.

Instead, he is going to fight Stipe Miocic this November in a fight that no one really wants to see happen anymore. After all, Miocic is a pale shadow of his former self. Once the most feared man at heavyweight, Miocic is quite clearly on his last legs. He is 42 and last fought three years ago when he was brutally slept by Francis Ngannou. On the other hand, Jones has all but announced that he will be retiring after the Miocic fight at UFC 309. And he is retiring despite there being unfinished business for the New Mexico resident. After all, there is an interim champ in the division, who has called out Jones multiple times.

But UFC analyst Chael Sonnen, who doesn’t really like Jones, “cannot stand for the idea that Jon Jones is scared to fight anybody,” as he told co-host, former UFC champ, and Jones’ arch-rival Daniel Cormier on their ESPN MMA show. While ‘DC’ did purportedly agree with Sonnen, his explanation did seem an awful lot like Jones was afraid to fight Aspinall. Basically, Cormier thinks Jones has next to nothing to gain or prove by fighting the much younger and much hungrier Aspinall, who has all the tools required to be able to beat Jones.

“I don’t think he’s scared Chael, but again it’s risk versus reward… I will tell you this right now Jon Jones, to his credit, a win over Tom Aspinall does nothing more for Jon Jones’ [legacy’… But losing to Tom Aspinall does do something,” he said.

“Because now you see him lose. He’s never lost, and that matters to him… So for him to go out there and fight a young hungry guy who seems to possess the skills to beat him, it’s not worth the risk… His legacy to him I feel might mean more than taking that risk,” Cormier added.

Indeed, as Dana White doesn’t tire of reminding fans, Jones’ case for being the GOAT has a lot to do with him being essentially undefeated (except for a DQ loss in a bout which ‘Bones’ had all but won). Cormier thinks his former foe is right to hesitate in facing someone as dangerous as Aspinall and risk tainting his undefeated legacy at the fag end of his career. But, Aspinall did seem to have a sliver of a chance after recent developments. However, ‘DC’ has poured cold water on those hopes as well.

‘DC’ claims Aspinall has zero chance of fighting Jones despite being the UFC 309 back-up fighter

Tom Aspinall is a fighter in the truest sense. That, of course means the interim champ wants to face the very best, win or lose. And if that opponent is Jon Jones, recognized by many as the greatest ever mixed martial artist, it is easy to see why Aspinall seems desperate. Not to mention the interim champ believes from the bottom of his heart that he is the one who would walk out victorious if ‘Bones’ gets into the octagon with him.

And Aspinall being announced as the backup fighter for the Jones-Miocic bout, at least in theory, means there is now a non-zero chance that Aspinall gets his wish. The keyword here is ‘in theory’. In practice, ‘DC’ doesn’t think so. He still thinks there is no chance a UFC event featuring a Jones-Aspinall unification bout will ever happen. The reason for Cormier’s confidence? The turn of events that happened last year on UFC 295 when Jones and Miocic were originally supposed to face each other.

As you will remember, Sergei Pavlovich was the backup fighter for Jones-Miocic last November. But even after Jones was forced to pull out due to an injury from UFC 295, Miocic snubbed Pavlovich and chose to fight ‘Bones’ another day.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Cormier predicted that even if either Miocic or Jones cannot make it to UFC 309, the other guy will refuse to face Aspinall and choose to pull out in an action replay of what happened at UFC 295. And that, of course, means Tom Aspinall will be left out in the cold, just like Pavlovich was. What makes his case worse is that Ciryl Gane vs. Alexander Volkov has been moved to December from UFC 308. He could have fought the winner of the bout if it came to it. What are your thoughts on Cormier’s take on why Jones is seemingly not looking to face Aspinall?