Jon Jones has been under heavy scrutiny for holding back the UFC heavyweight championship title despite being inactive from action. Jones was all set to fight Stipe Miocic at UFC 295, about six months ago, but his pectoral muscle injury put the fight in jeopardy. However, Dana White seemed to have a soft spot for fighters like Jones and let him keep the belt. But the fight fans were simply not happy about it. Now, the UFC play-by-play commentator, Jon Anik, has sided with the fans.

Jones’ fight against Miocic was something that the entire fandom greatly anticipated. Its cancelation indeed caused a huge uproar in the fighting community. Nevertheless, with the increasing number of inactive days, the speculations about Jones vacating his belt are on the rise. And Anik is one of the many who want ‘Bones’ to vacate the belt.

UFC insiders discuss whether Jon Jones should vacate his title

In a recent episode of Anik and Kenny Florian’s talk show, the ‘Anik & Florian Podcast’, the duo stumbled upon the heavyweight champion’s last injury that led to the cancelation of his fight against ‘The Silencer’, at UFC 295. Even though discussions about Jones returning to fight Miocic in Madison Square Garden this year are all the rage in the MMA realm, many fans believed that ‘Bones’ should have vacated his belt to let others fight for it.

In the podcast, Anik expressed similar views. The play-by-play commentator, although personally wanted Jones to vacate his title, he understood that the MMA promotion would not force the fighter to give up his belt if he didn’t want to. He merged Jones’ star factor with White’s reasoning. Anik claimed that it was apparently the reason why Tom Aspinall would have to defend his interim title against Curtis Blaydes.

Anik said, “I would have loved to have seen sort of a vacation of the title by Jon Jones after the torn pec. Just knowing that there was already an interim champion. But if he was not going to do that, I don’t blame the greatest of all time for not wanting to do that. The promotion wasn’t going to strip him, and that’s why we are where we’re at, an interim title defense for Tom Aspinall against Curtis Blaydes.”

Florian, on the other hand, agreed with Anik but also believed that Jones deserved the heavyweight championship title. Furthermore, he also pointed that even though every single fighter will decline, Jones will go down as a HoFer. But he wasn’t ready to see the vacant title. He said, “Absolutely! And if you are gonna let a champion hold on to their belt under these types of circumstances, then it’s gonna be someone like Jon Jones. I do think he deserves it. He’s put in the work, he’s been in this sport for a very long time, he’s competed at the highest levels of the sport. He’ll certainly go down as a Hall of Famer, one of the best to ever do it. And again, everybody meets their decline and I don’t think it’s fair…”

And seemingly they aren’t the only one’s who believe that Bones should have made way for more active fighters in the promotion.

UFC veteran wanted White to strip ‘Bones’ off of his title

Dan Hardy recently voiced his opinion about Jones’ belt. He seemed to correlate between ‘Bones’ and Conor McGregor. Hardy revealed that ‘The Notorious’ was stripped of his championship title after he was inactive for about 511 days. When Jones reached the same number of inactive days, the former mixed martial artist claimed that Dana White should strip away his heavyweight belt.

Furthermore, Hardy expressed that he was glad for Aspinall to get back on his home soil for a fight. Unfortunately, disappointment spread all around because it was a fight for the interim championship title and not the actual belt. Nevertheless, Jones is rumored to return and demonstrate his strength to the fans against Miocic, sometime in November 2024.

Do you think Dana White should have stripped Jon Jones’ title? Let us know in the comments down below.