Doubt he would win but one never knows at HW since Aspinal is a very good striker and simply grazing someone on the chin could quickly end a fight. That said, I suspect Jones would simply take him down early to mitigate his striking advantage.
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Doubt he would win but one never knows at HW since Aspinal is a very good striker and simply grazing someone on the chin could quickly end a fight. That said, I suspect Jones would simply take him down early to mitigate his striking advantage.
So do i, but I'm gradually adapting to the new reality that it will never be what it was during the peak UFC days of a decade ago.
Holy feck what a KO
The face planting in slow motion 
Poor guy fell square on his face.The face planting in slow motion
The Conor quote during his Aldo post fight interview springs to mind.....
"Precision beats power, timing beats speed".
"Precision beats power, timing beats speed".
And hard work beats hard drugs.
Trump looks butt hurt, can’t hide it
Merab is too good.
Total domination by merab
Merab was impressive again. Not sure what O'Malley's strategy was tonight.
Main event and co main went as expected.
125 and 135 are both getting a bit boring at the top, Pantoja and Merab far too dominant and no real great contenders coming through in either.
Champs don’t seem to last long anymore, I wouldn’t worry, someone will surprise everyone in the next 24 months
Or Jones will just kickbox him from range. He is not a very good kickboxer but he's got a strange ability to control where the fight takes place.
Yeah, I think Jones would have the advantage everywhere except non-leg striking. Tom would probably have a bit of an overall cardio advantage given that Jones is now in his late 30s and carrying a lot more weight than in his LHW prime years.
I think Aspinall beats him. Jones has picked his fights brilliantly so far. He struggled in both of his last LHW fights and likely should have lost them on the cards. The Gane win was very good but Miocic was done when they fought. Old Jones would have took the Aspinal fight in a heartbeat.
I don’t really see what he’s holding out for tbh. Ngannou isn’t going to happen and there isn’t a great deal of other fights or even money making fights for him out there. Retire or just fight Aspinall at this point.
I don’t really see what he’s holding out for tbh. Ngannou isn’t going to happen and there isn’t a great deal of other fights or even money making fights for him out there. Retire or just fight Aspinall at this point.
There's a big factor being neglected in this discussion which is that Aspinall is absolutely light years faster than Jones in both hand speed and movement.
Aspinall cooks Jones at this point. He will make him look very old in there.
If an old, slow Stipe can land as many shots on Jones as he did… it doesn’t look good. Now maybe Jones will want to just take the fight to the ground as quick as possible, but Tom’s good footwork and in and out movement makes that a lot more tricky. Like most of Tom’s opponents, I think Jones will be lucky to see the second round.
If an old, slow Stipe can land as many shots on Jones as he did… it doesn’t look good. Now maybe Jones will want to just take the fight to the ground as quick as possible, but Tom’s good footwork and in and out movement makes that a lot more tricky. Like most of Tom’s opponents, I think Jones will be lucky to see the second round.
The reason Aspinall is exciting is he’s done wrestling and bjj since a kid so we’re not even sure jones would want to try take downs. He just doesn’t want the fight, same as how he doesn’t ever want the Francis fight, even though Francis isn’t great on the ground he can stuff takedowns well enough. It is what it is, the guy mysteriously was ‘ready’ for HW the day Francis left, now he’s too big a star to fight the interim. Guys the lhw goat and an absolute joke at hw. He’ll be stripped eventually because he simply won’t do it, I reckon he’ll even agree and then get ‘injured’ as revenge as he’s so rattled by all this social media stuff.
That would be the biggest risk for Jones. On the other hand if Jones takes him down, Tom would likely struggle to avoid getting submitted.
I don't know about that, Jones is obviously very good on the ground but Aspinall is a pretty legit black belt himself.
I don't disagree, but this is Jon Jones we are talking about. Even in his older, HW shape, I wouldn't want to be taken down by him and expect to survive.
Jones should be stripped of the belt, but UFC is a farce.
He doesn’t want the fight because it carries more risk than he’s ever faced in his career at the worst possible time with him being old, slow and noticeably declined athletically and reflexively.
I’ve Jones as the greatest of all time, or tied with Mighty Mouse, at worst, and he is a genius, but Father Time is undefeated *and* he never has been the athletic threat to truly impressive heavyweight specimens, which is why he wanted no part of Francis and is avoiding Aspinall like the plague.
The chord should be cut. His legacy has been tainted by this, where it wouldn’t have been if he’d rode off into the sunset straight after his last fight.
This is all so unfair on Aspinall, too. As it was for Francis; this nonsense shortening the peak years of those at the top who want to fight all comers.
He doesn’t want the fight because it carries more risk than he’s ever faced in his career at the worst possible time with him being old, slow and noticeably declined athletically and reflexively.
I’ve Jones as the greatest of all time, or tied with Mighty Mouse, at worst, and he is a genius, but Father Time is undefeated *and* he never has been the athletic threat to truly impressive heavyweight specimens, which is why he wanted no part of Francis and is avoiding Aspinall like the plague.
The chord should be cut. His legacy has been tainted by this, where it wouldn’t have been if he’d rode off into the sunset straight after his last fight.
This is all so unfair on Aspinall, too. As it was for Francis; this nonsense shortening the peak years of those at the top who want to fight all comers.
You’re not Tom Aspinall though!
Tom is a great. Not sure he will ever fight Jones though.
He only has 1 sub in his last 12 fights against one of the worst grapplers in the sport so I'd argue how dangerous he actually is. Tom would obviously need to have his wits about him but I don't see this as a case that if he gets Aspinall down once he'll likely finish him.
Completely agree. I was just being generous. I don’t think Tom would be too concerned about the fight going anywhere in reality. It’s his time.
i think everyone wants to see that fight but as stated, father time has caught up to Jones
if that fight does take place, it'll either end quickly in the first round or be drawn out to 5 rounds of fecking handbags
I think it would be a relatively quick one since most of Aspinal's fights rarely make it out of the first round and Jones himself easily dispatched with Cyril Gane in his first fight at HW. I don't think Jones has the cardio at 250lb to go five quality rounds at age 38.
yep...don't think it gets out of the first round either
five quality round....nope...it would end up being two large dudes on the ground rolling around in exhaustion.
Yeah agreed, the longer this charade has gone one I think people are wising up to it actually being quite a boring fight. The only thing people want to see is Jones knocked out, the actual match up is awful - Jones has been average for what 6 years, doesn't have ko power, and has been scraping dodgy decisions/generally looking awful vs a young guy who is bigger, faster and knocks everyone out + has wrestling/bjj.
What we really want is Ngannou/Aspinall - two genuine HWs, both with ko power and a real 50/50.
If in the absolutely remote chance that Ngannou were to go back to the UFC, they should reinstate him as champion and announce that Jones' title win is null & void and forever erased from the history books.
That would be about 10 birthdays and Christmas' rolled into one. Jones would have to be put under police surveillance though as he might genuinely go and kill someone in response.
That would be about 10 birthdays and Christmas' rolled into one. Jones would have to be put under police surveillance though as he might genuinely go and kill someone in response.
Jones holding the HW belt hostage and Dana allowing him to is a shambles. HW is meant to be the most fun division and it's completely stagnant.
The lack of name power at HW or in general is probably why Dana is holding out hope that he can make this fight happen and why he hasn’t stripped Jones or fecked him off.
There’s just not many names really in the Heavyweight scene anymore and Jones still has some name value and is one of their biggest stars and draws. I think it sums up the UFC in general right now and recently, it’s nowhere near as good as it used to be and it’s rare that you look at a card now and think to yourself “wow, I’ve got to see this!”. There’s fights here and there but the actual cards just don’t hit in the mark like they used to imo. This probably all factors in to why he’s trying to be patient with Jones.
There’s just not many names really in the Heavyweight scene anymore and Jones still has some name value and is one of their biggest stars and draws. I think it sums up the UFC in general right now and recently, it’s nowhere near as good as it used to be and it’s rare that you look at a card now and think to yourself “wow, I’ve got to see this!”. There’s fights here and there but the actual cards just don’t hit in the mark like they used to imo. This probably all factors in to why he’s trying to be patient with Jones.
Yeah it's like boxing for me now, I just tune in to the one or two fights that interest me on the card. Can't remember the last time I saw a card from start to finish