By the middle of last year, Jon Jones was well on his way to a dream retirement. The UFC heavyweight champion, having earned his GOAT status with over a decade of dominance at light heavyweight, had moved up and become the heavyweight champ, and was going into what he described as ‘the most important’ fight of his career. ‘Bones’ after all was scheduled to face former champ Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 last year in what was being dubbed ‘The Battle of the GOATs’.

Expected to be an easy win for Jones, he was expected to ride off into the sunset, having defeated most people’s pick for the heavyweight GOAT. But like many best-laid plans of mice and men, ‘Bones’s went awry. Now he faces a situation that may forever stain his legacy if he doesn’t unify the title. And UFC commentator Michael Bisping thinks ‘Bones’ has no one to blame but himself.

Bisping thinks Jon Jones’ injury led to Tom Aspinall controversy

In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Bisping felt that the fans who are asking Jones to fight interim champion Tom Aspinall over Stipe Miocic are right. Most people don’t want to see Jones fight a 41-year-old Miocic who last fought three years ago (where he got knocked out) and is definitely at the end of his rope.

“There’s a lot of people out there saying why isn’t Tom fighting Jon? That fight was lined up a long time ago between Stipe and Jon Jones, okay… So they’re going to do the match and it’s been a massive delay, and it’s a pain in the a** for Tom Aspinall,” Bisping said.

But, despite these criticisms, Jones is adamant he will fight Miocic next. This insistence has led to accusations of Jones ‘ducking’ the younger and more dangerous Aspinall. Many think if Jones retires before fighting Aspinall, it would forever be an albatross on Jones’ legacy.

“And the reality is the fact that Jon Jones got injured in the first place is why Tom Aspinall is the champion today. If that never happened Tom would still be clawing away, still beating guys like Curtis Blaydes, and certainly would appear to be the number one contender. That all changed because he [Jones] got injured,” Bisping added.

Bisping is clear, Jones has no one to blame but himself. After all, it was his pulling out of UFC 295 because of an injury that made the UFC book Aspinall against Sergei Pavlovich for the interim title on the MSG card, where the Englishman emerged as the new interim champ. And Bisping thinks that despite Jones seemingly having announced he will retire after the Miocic fight, he will have to fight Aspinall.

Bisping thinks ‘Bones’ will have to face Aspinall

Jon Jones took to social media and made an eyebrow-raising comment. “Fun Fact, after this year, Jon Jones will never have to work again. Retired at age 37. Winning,” the champion wrote while replying to a fan’s comment on Instagram. However, Bisping thinks that this post should not be taken very seriously, even if it did give some idea into his current state of mind.

The UFC commentator believes that Jones will almost have no choice but to fight Aspinall, lest his legacy be stained forever with the charge that he retired because he was too scared to fight the interim champion. “He’s feeling the pressure, he’s feeling the pinch and he knows he’s probably going to have to fight this guy,” Bisping said.

For now, however, Jones is focused solely on Miocic and their bout slated for November this year. After which the undisputed heavyweight champion will have two options- retire or fight Aspinall. Do you think Jones will face Aspinall before he retires? Drop your views in the comments below.