After defending his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309, Jon Jones could be set to unify the title against Tom Aspinall, and bizarrely, Conor McGregor has weighed in on the matchup.
Once again showcasing why he is considered the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, Jon Jones easily dispatched Stipe Miocic this past Saturday in the UFC 309 main event, finishing him in the third round.
‘Bones’ caused controversy amongst the fanbase when he admitted before his fight that he is unlikely to fight interim champion Tom Aspinall in a title unification bout and instead called for a fight against Alex Pereira.
Tom Aspinall claims Jon Jones ‘can’t sleep at night’ knowing Aspinall could beat him
Despite Jones’ adamance that he won’t fight the Brit, UFC CEO Dana White stuck to his guns after UFC 309 and stated that he would not make a fight between Jones and Pereira and that Jones must defend against Aspinall next.
Following the UFC 309 main event, Aspinall had a brief meeting with the UFC brass and hinted that he would have ‘big news coming’ following successful talks.
Although Jones is acting as if he isn’t interested in a fight against Aspinall, the interim champion believes that ‘Bones’ is scared of the potential matchup and he ‘can’t sleep at night’ knowing Aspinall could beat him.
“He hates the fact that people are saying that I can beat him. He can’t sleep at night, all this stuff, he keeps mentioning it over and over again, that he doesn’t care about me and that he’s above me, this is all projecting man. Deep down he knows,” Aspinall said on the Ariel Helwani Show.
Conor McGregor slams Tom Aspinall as he offers advice to Jon Jones
The 31-year-old interim champion admitted that he thinks one of the reasons why Jones is hesitant to fight him, is because there isn’t much tape out there on Aspinall inside the cage.
“One of Jon Jones’ biggest advantages that he has over anybody, he’s said this on multiple interviews over the years, is that he is a tape studier, as am I, a massive tape studier.
“He has no chance of doing that with me because my average fight time is the shortest in UFC history at 2 minutes 2 seconds over 10 fights and that’s something that keeps him up at night. I’m a massive question mark for him.
There’s next to no footage on me out there apart from me bouncing people’s heads off the canvas and he has no idea what to prepare for,” Aspinall continued.
Weighing in on Aspinall’s comments, former UFC two-weight world champion, Conor McGregor slammed the Brit and offered Jones some advice for their potential upcoming fight.
“That footage of him looking woeful vs Rico Verhoeven is good footage to watch for Jon. I’ve warmed to this matchup, I think it should happen,” McGregor stated in a now-deleted tweet on X.
Conor McGregor believes that Tom Aspinall looked “woeful” sparring against Glory Kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven
“I’ve warmed to this matchup, I think it should happen.”
🎥 @AspinallMMA #UFC #MMApic.twitter.com/Wapcch2zMq
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) November 19, 2024
Former Glory kickboxing world champion, Rico Verhoeven is a permanent fixture of Aspinall’s incredible heavyweight super camp, and the two can be seen sparring regularly on Aspinall’s YouTube channel.