UFC commentator Daniel Cormier has given his thoughts on why he thinks the promotion let Jon Jones fight Stipe Miocic instead of Tom Aspinall.
As we know, Jon Jones is retired from mixed martial arts. While he may already be teasing the idea of a comeback, it certainly doesn’t feel particularly likely given some of the things he’s said in the past. Alas, it appears as if he’s still loosely connected to the idea of a Tom Aspinall superfight, even though he had plenty of time to get that done over the last few years.
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After his initial fight against Stipe Miocic was called off due to injury, Aspinall stepped in and beat Sergei Pavlovich to become the new interim heavyweight champion. While many felt as if Jones should’ve gone on to fight the Englishman, he instead stuck with the Miocic plan.
In a recent podcast appearance, Daniel Cormier gave his thoughts on how that all played out.
Cormier’s view on UFC letting Jones fight Miocic
“I honestly thought when Jones got back — Tom Aspinall was the interim champion when Jones fought Stipe. How?! How can you fight someone else when the interim champion is available? It shouldn’t have happened,” Cormier said.
“I got it, though. But this is where I feel things got crossed,” Cormier added. “I think they (the UFC) might have (done) that with the idea that he would have given them the Tom Aspinall fight.
“That is the only reason they give you a legacy fight, is if you give me something back. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. I feel like maybe he goes, ‘Give me the Stipe fight, I wanna do it at Madison Square, but then I’ll do the Aspinall fight.’
“Then the Tom Aspinall fight comes about and he goes, ‘Give me $30 million,’ thinking like, ‘This is going to be my way of (getting out of it).’ … You’ve gotta fight the guy, man.”
Quotes via Bloody Elbow
