'Sat there with Cheeto fingers'… Tom Aspinall rips 'overweight' Jon Jones as he sends brutal retirement warning amid heavyweight title feud
19/08/2024 21:01
Tom Aspinall has finally shut down his ‘Mr Nice Guy’ persona and gone after Jon Jones as their UFC title feud begins to heat up.
The British heavyweight is the interim champion, and has been chasing Jones since winning his belt back in November. He has done everything in his power to make a fight between the pair, but it appears that the legendary two-weight champion, who holds the undisputed gold, is more interested in other options.
Jones is currently preparing to face arguably the greatest heavyweight in history; Stipe Miocic, on November 16 at UFC 310. But many feel that given Miocic turning 43 this year and taking four years off following a vicious knockout loss to Francis Ngannou that it is not the right fight for the current day.
Tom Aspinall rips into Jon Jones in explosive podcast appearance
Generally, Tom Aspinall is a polite challenger and tends to keep his comments towards any of his challengers or potential opponents respectful. But in a new interview on the Believe You Me Podcast with Michael Bisping and Anthony Smith, he decided to change his tune for the first time.
Bisping revealed that the pair had engaged in a text conversation surrounding Jones’ recent social media comments implying that he would retire come year’s end. Aspinall reportedly told the former middleweight champion that his rival was ‘a bit of a fanny’, and insisted he ‘stands by’ the comment.
“Jon Jones, he was praying that I would lose that fight against Curtis Blaydes,” he explained. “Praying that I would. Because there is no where that you can find publicly, nowhere, him saying publicly that he will fight me.
“It doesn’t exist and I challenge anybody watching this interview to go and find a statement, a quote, anything where he has stated that he will fight me after he’s fought Stipe. It doesn’t exist, the guy is smart.”
Tom Aspinall slams ‘overweight’ Jon Jones over ‘Cheeto fingers’
Aspinall continued on from his more stock lines to note that he expects his rival was watching his recent win over Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 very closely. His theory is that Jones was sitting by the phone, ready to release a cheap dig in the case that Blaydes got the win in Manchester.
“We know he’s a bit overweight these days,” Aspinall continued. “The guy was sat there with the Cheeto fingers or whatever, Doritos on his fingers, with his iPhone in hand waiting for me to get knocked out, let’s just be honest.
“And since I won that fight, he’s gone completely quiet and he’ll continue to go completely quiet about me until he retires because there’s no way on earth he is going to fight me. Not a chance. I will retire Jon Jones without even fighting him.”
Tom Aspinall believes Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic is a ‘bulls***’ title fight
Since Jones won his vacant heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane in March of last year, Aspinall has returned from injury with a knockout win, claimed the interim belt on short notice and defended it. Meanwhile, the American has been out with injury, and is still chasing a fight with Miocic.
“Why are you giving a guy who’s 42 or however old he is [a title shot],” he continued. “I completely understand and have respect for Stipe and what he’s done in his career. And Jon Jones, on the contrary to what people might think.
“I respect them guys more than I could even put into words, but they don’t deserve to be f***ing fighting for the heavyweight title. Them guys are not the top of the heavyweight division right now… Dana White or whoever can say whatever they want.
“Them guys aren’t the best heavyweights in the world right now and I’m not saying they’ve not had amazing careers because I idolised them guys. I want to have a career like that, that’s what I’m aiming to do with my life, what they’ve done.
“But they’re not the best right now. Right now they’re definitely not the best. So let’s stop talking all this bulls*** like they are.”
