Jon Jones has confronted excessive criticism within the wake of his retirement that he was ducking a battle in opposition to Tom Aspinall, however fellow UFC legend Matt Brown simply doesn’t purchase it.
In actual fact, Brown is aware of from previous expertise {that a} fighter’s missteps are virtually all the time forgotten with time, which is precisely what he expects to occur with Jones’ legacy now that he’s calling it a profession. As a lot as everybody wished to see him battle Aspinall proper now, Jones’ physique of labor is so in depth that him in the end deciding to retire received’t come again to chew him in the long term.
“Jon’s a sensible man,” Brown mentioned on the most recent episode of The Fighter vs. The Author. “He is aware of in a yr, two years, nobody’s going to recollect what this narrative was. It’s going to all be forgotten. The division’s going to maneuver on, the UFC’s going to maneuver on and we’re going to neglect there was this seven-month stagnant interval, and Jon Jones remains to be going to be the best ever.
“On his finish, he’s like ‘f*ck you guys, say no matter you need, it’s all going to be forgotten, I’m the best, I can do regardless of the hell I would like,’ and if I used to be in his footwear, I’d most likely say the identical rattling factor.”
If something, Brown looks like Jones ready seven months after his win over Stipe Miocic to determine to retire actually simply screws Aspinall greater than anyone else.
Whereas he’s now been promoted to undisputed heavyweight champion, Aspinall doesn’t have a complete lot of choices so far as compelling opponents. He went from an opportunity to face arguably the best fighter within the historical past of the game to a collection of potential matchups the place Aspinall goes to be very closely favored to win.
Following Jones retirement, odds makers already positioned Aspinall as a 3-to-1 favourite over Ciryl Gane, who seems to be his probably subsequent opponent. Brown astutely factors out that Jones laid waste to Gane in his heavyweight debut and there’s no means that doesn’t get introduced up once more if that turns into Aspinall’s first official title protection as undisputed champion.
“It’s virtually like Jon has one thing in opposition to Tom Aspinall,” Brown mentioned. “Like he simply wished to utterly spoil his life in each means doable, and he’s doing an incredible job of it. It places Tom in a tricky spot. He’s undoubtedly the largest loser on this complete factor. It makes it tough for him.
“Like the place does he go from right here? He fights Ciryl Gane, the man Jon beat in two minutes? Or Jailton Almeida? Almeida misplaced to [Curtis Blaydes]. The heavyweight division isn’t what it was.”
Brown argues that Jones’ run at gentle heavyweight resulted in somewhat unimpressive trend with a collection of fights that simply didn’t appear all that fascinating to him. However the profit Jones had was when he first obtained to the UFC, there was a protracted line of prime contenders within the division and he finally beat all of them.
Jones transferring to heavyweight was simply the cherry on prime of his already stellar profession.
Sadly, Aspinall simply doesn’t have that choice as a result of cabinet at heavyweight has been picked naked lately and there isn’t a lot of a youth motion to assist issues a lot both.
“Jon ruined the freaking gentle heavyweight division,” Brown mentioned. “He knocked out all of the legendary guys that we thought would give him [a fight] like ‘Shogun’ [Mauricio Rua] and ‘Rampage’ [Quinton Jackson] and Rashad Evans after which Daniel Cormier after which the tail finish of his gentle heavyweight run it’s [Thiago] Santos, who he arguably misplaced to, [Dominick] Reyes, who he arguably misplaced to. It simply went sort of uninteresting in a while. However Tom is sort of beginning proper there with being uninteresting. The heavyweight division is meant to be the division all of the followers wish to go watch. I don’t know the way we’d be in watching Tom battle these guys.
“It’s principally like these girls’s divisions. You’ve obtained one or two that make the worthy contenders after which it drops to love does this particular person have an opportunity? It’s a tricky division proper now. I’m undecided what the UFC’s going to wish to do to step that up. Are they going to name Brock Lesnar again perhaps?”
All jokes apart, Aspinall can nonetheless rack up title defenses and that would set him aside from the remainder of the heavyweight division however stage of competitors nonetheless needs to be thought-about.
That’s one of many explanation why Demetrious Johnson not often will get put on the prime of those legendary all-time greats lists as a result of regardless of having 11 consecutive title defenses, the flyweight division simply wasn’t as deep as what Jones had at gentle heavyweight or any person like Georges St-Pierre confronted at welterweight.
Jones might take some jabs proper now that he averted a battle with Aspinall however all he actually did was refuse to present probably his hardest challenger the prospect to actually solidify his personal legacy given the state of the heavyweight division proper now.
“I simply suppose Jon doesn’t give a shit,” Brown mentioned. “He’s out partying. He’s dwelling his greatest life. I don’t suppose it has something to do with him pondering that he’s going to have a tough time with Tom Aspinall, which I do suppose he would as a matter of reality, however I don’t suppose it has something to do with that.
“I feel he’s a celebration animal and he’s obtained tens of millions of {dollars} within the financial institution and he’s set for all times. He’s like f*ck yeah I’m going to go get together, why ought to I am going battle?”
