Michael Bisping chides Jon Jones for holding up UFC, Tom Aspinall: 'Defend or vacate'
UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping says it's time for heavyweight champion Jon Jones to defend or move on.
Frustrations with Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) and his potential title unification bout against interim champion Tom Aspinall have been boiling over recently. The calls for Jones to either put his belt on the line against Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) have grown louder after the UFC officially announced the future slate of pay-per-view main events into the summer, which did not include the heavyweight title fight.
While Aspinall has repeatedly voiced his frustration with the situation, Jones, who defended the heavyweight title for the first time against Stipe Miocic last July at UFC 304, has been publicly dismissive. "Bones" has even hinted that retirement is a strong possibility, while posting videos on social media of having fun in various locations.
"That's great for him. That's all well and good, but if you're the heavyweight champion of the world, then you have an obligation to the sport, the fans, to the other fighters in the divsion," Bisping told MMA Junkie's Mike Bohn on "The Bohnfire." "Live your life, and if you are somewhat retired, just be honest and come out and say it.
"Obviously, Dana (White) has been very adamant that the fight is going ahead. So I think maybe it's just Jon messing with Tom psychologically because he's a master of his craft, and he knows what he's doing. If he's not, and he has no intention of fighting, and he's just stringing it out for a while because he wants to hang on to the belt, then that's appalling to be quite frank."
Aspinall became the interim heavyweight champion by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 294 in November 2023. With a title unification out of the picture, Aspinall was put in a position to defend the interim title, which he did successfully by stopping Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 last July. Nearly a year later, Aspinall has no clue what's next.
"I feel for Tom here because Tom is in the prime of his life," Bisping said. "He's an absolutely incredible fighter. He's just dispatching of everybody with ease. He's the best finisher in all the sport right now, and he's in the prime. He should be fighting every few months. Every six months at least. Every four or five months, he should be back in there building his legacy and making money and just doing what he was put on this earth to do – what he's trained an entire life for. Yet, he's just sitting around on the sidelines waiting and waiting and waiting.
"So, I'm sure it's extremely frustrating for Tom, the fans – because I've said this for a long time: I think Tom smokes him. I do. And I think Jon is probably very conscious of that threat as well. I'm not saying he doesn't think he can win, but he understands that this will be a tough fight, but they're all tough fights. They're all supposed to be tough fights."
If Jones does decide to continue fighting, Bisping believes Jones should reflect upon his days as an up-and-coming light heavyweight contender. Immediately after beating Ryan Bader at UFC 126, it was announced he would fight for Mauricio Rua's title at UFC 128 just over a month later. Jones won the title to become the youngest UFC champion ever. He then recorded his first title defense six months later. Things moved very quickly for Jones in his early days as a champion, and Bisping would like to see that be repaid to Aspinall.
"For Jon to not want to give this guy an opportunity where other people gave him an opportunity – he was the youngest champion in this sport, and he's always talking about there's always going to be younger guys coming along – well, what about when you were fighting for the belt and you were the youngest person to ever do it?" Bisping said. "You got that opportunity. When you become the champion, there is an obligation to do that. So, defend or vacate. It's that simple.
"All these cryptic tweets and going out to Thailand and living his best life and sh*t, great. If that's what you want to do, go off and enjoy your life, but do the decent thing."
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