Jon Jones’s coach feels that the undisputed champion has every right to say no to Tom Aspinall. The Englishman, of course, is the interim champion of the division where the consensus MMA GOAT resides as of now. And unsurprisingly, Aspinall has been calling for Jones to fight him. But since ‘Bones’ upcoming clash with Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 is expected to be his swansong, Aspinall will be left out in the cold.

There was a lot of controversy around Jones choosing to fight 42-year-old Miocic despite there being an interim champ in the division. But ‘Bones’s coach Brandon Gibson thinks Jon Jones doesn’t need to follow the rules as other, lesser fighters do.

“Yeah and probably 99% of the time that’s what happens [the interim champion fights the undisputed champion]. But when you’re trying to, you know, claim a matchup against the greatest of all time, sometimes the rules aren’t the same. It’s not always about who’s next in line, and a mandatory title defense… This is Jon Jones and he’s the one that’s in control of his legacy, and he has earned that through, you know, those 16 championships,” he told ‘Shak MMA’ in a recent interview.

The coach pointed out how much of a factor luck and circumstances play in getting a historic fight like Aspinall wanted against Jones. He recalled how ‘Bones’ almost fell into his first UFC title fight against Mauricio Shogun Rua in 2011 because of Rashad Evans pulling out. Gibson feels that Aspinall was just not very lucky and will unfortunately have to suffer for it.

“So you know when you look back at young Jones and how he got a shot up against [then champion] Shogun [Rua], as well. Like there was a lot of circumstances and things that fell in place for that to happen,” Gibson continued.

At least the coach, unlike Jones, had some sympathy for Aspinall being so close yet so far from fighting the GOAT contender. “You know I feel for Tom Aspinall. He’s hungry, he wants to prove that, you know, he has what it takes,” he added. But Aspinall seems to have accepted this and moved on since that is the only thing he can do.

Why is Tom Aspinall not calling out Jon Jones anymore?

It seems that Tom Aspinall has given up on his aspirations to challenge Jon Jones. At this point, he knows he may never get to fight the undisputed champ. While Dana White may have said he ‘strongly believes’ the winner of Jones-Miocic will fight Aspinall next, that seems to be more wishful thinking than anything else.

To be fair, Miocic may be game enough to fight Aspinall if he defeated Jones at Madison Square Garden, but Jones has been crystal clear in his decision to pass the Englishman for now. Not only has he ridiculed and shut down all of the interim champ’s call-outs, but has recently said he may fight Alex Pereira after Miocic since Aspinall is essentially a “nobody”.

Jones’s former arch-nemesis Daniel Cormier feels the risk/reward calculus of fighting Aspinall is why Jones doesn’t want to fight the Englishman. After all, Aspinall is young, hungry, incredibly skilled, and has, at least on paper, what it takes to beat Jones. It is therefore too risky for Jones to fight him and risk taking his first real loss so close to calling it quits.

In other words, Aspinall may be true in his claims of Jones “ducking” him out of fear of tarnishing his legacy. This is why Aspinall isn’t even calling out Jones anymore. What do you think about Jon Jones’ coach’s take on an Aspinall fight?