Ahead of the 309, Dana White was asked if he wanted to see the winner of the Jones-Miocic fight going against Tom Aspinall to unify the heavyweight title. The audience roared, hearing just the question. That reached fever pitch when White replied, “The winner should absolutely fight Tom.” Jones sitting beside White wore a smile on his face, looking at the madness. That is the extent the fanbase wants to see ‘Bones’ against ‘The Honey Badger’. But the heavyweight champion has different plans.

Before he clashed with the firefighter at UFC 309, ‘Bones’ declared, “I can see myself entertaining super fights only.” Jones himself wanted to test himself against another UFC superstar, even if it meant vacating his belt. 

That’s right! The 37-year-old heavyweight champion even thought of vacating his championship title to avoid participating in “legacy fights.” In a conversation with Aaron Bronsteter before UFC 309, Jones said, “After this fight, if we get a dominant performance, I’m prepared to vacate the heavyweight championship and fight for fun. I’ve had a big chip on my shoulder my whole career. I’ve had to defend, defend, and defend. I don’t necessarily want it [fighting] to be over, but I just want to fight for fun.”

Following his 12th title defense (11 light heavyweight, and 1 heavyweight) at UFC 309, ‘Bones’ became the first-ever fighter in the history of UFC to successfully defend his title in three different title reigns, with two runs in the light heavyweight division, and one title defense in the heavyweight realm. Jones shared this impressive feat on Instagram with the caption, “That’s pretty neat.” 

But it was Jon Jones‘ words in the comments section that sent a shockwave through the fighting community. The heavyweight champion wrote, “I may just vacate this thing and come back for a fourth.” And yes! He still doesn’t want to fight the Englishman and put his undisputed title on the line against Aspinall’s interim. And that has created a ruckus in which the UFC stars getting into, going against each other.

Tom Aspinall is surely among the upcoming talents of the heavyweight division. A fight, or say win against him could have made Jones truly the undisputed champion of the division. That is why many think that avoiding the fight against Aspinall Jones is hurting his legacy. However, a former UFC heavyweight is disgusted with such a theory.

“You finally have a guy who has a leg up on the UFC and can do that. He doesn’t need anyone or anything to be considered the greatest of all time, and all he’s asking is, ‘Pay me like I’m the greatest of all time’. People are like, ‘You’re ducking him, just get in there with him it’s the right thing to do’, shut up!” Brendan Schaub said on his YouTube channel. For context, After his win at the UFC 309, Jones had called for a hefty pay cheque, if he at all agreed to fight with Aspinall.

Meanwhile, all are not on the same page with Schaub. Former Interim UFC Welterweight Champion Colby Covington has blasted Jones for not going against Tom Aspinall. In an interview with Fight Hub, he said: “For sure, Jon Jones is scared of him, he’s ducking him, he doesn’t want to fight f*****g Tom Aspinall. That’s why he’s like, ‘I’ll vacate the title and fight the number ten guy.’”

Interestingly, amid all the noise, Jon Jones has eyes on former middleweight champion and current light heavyweight king Alex Pereira. Besides legacy, and money, what exactly is the motivation behind Jones fighting the Brazilian former two-weight kickboxing world champion? It seems like it isn’t for a world championship title either.

Jon Jones willing to drop HW title in quest for another belt

In the interview with Bronsteter, Jones claimed that it was pretty absurd for him to fight Tom Aspinall. He simply believed that the interim champion wasn’t worthy of facing someone with his legacy. However, although ‘Bones’ said he doesn’t care about titles, there is one that he has his eyes on, and wants to take on ‘Poatan’ for that particular belt. He said, “Fighting Pereira for the BMF belt, that’d be cool. We both have two belts in two weight classes. The night we fought, we’d both be fighting for our third belt, which would be the BMF. How cool would that be?”

On top of that, Jones’ coach, Brandon Gibson, was of a similar opinion. According to him, the ‘Poatan’ was a perfect opponent for ‘Bones’, given that he was already a champion in two different weight divisions. The man with the hands of stone was also up for a fight against Jones, as he shared a picture of White holding the BMF belt on Instagram and wrote, “Chama My brother let’s make them wait.”

As far as Aspinall was concerned, Jones believed that he was yet to make a significant achievement in the fighting world. If he vacates his heavyweight belt, the matchup between Aspinall and Jones would simply dissolve. Nevertheless, a fight between Alex Pereira and Jones would be even more exciting, don’t you agree?

Do you think vacating the belt and fighting Pereira is the right choice for Jones? Or should he do right by Tom Aspinall and defend his current title for the second time? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.