Tom Aspinall hails Jon Jones as the ‘GOAT’ and claims his presence in the heavyweight division fuels his motivation
In his return to the octagon after more than three years away, Jon Jones choked out Ciryl Gane in less than two minutes at UFC 285 in Las Vegas, winning the heavyweight championship. ‘Bones’ is one of the few UFC fighters to win titles at two different weight classes, and he is set to defend his titles later this year against former champion Stipe Miocic.
Recently, Tom Aspinall considered what it means to have “Bones” competing in the heavyweight class. The sixth-ranked heavyweight, in an interview with Ariel Helwani of The MMA Hour, said:
“With Jon Jones, it’s difficult to make an argument against [him being the greatest of all-time]. Honestly, the guy is special. He is special, and to say that he is the champion of my division right now – that gives me an unbelievable amount of motivation.”
He added:
“Let’s be honest, I’m probably not going to fight him, but just to aim for it, that’s something special for a guy like me.
Tom Aspinall shared that he believes the heavyweight champion will retire after facing Stipe Miocic. Maybe I’m wrong. That is like my dream fight, honestly, to fight Jon Jones. That’s a serious motivation for me since he became champ. I know it was only like a week or two ago, but the GOAT is the champ of my division.”
Alexander Volkanovski reacts to Jon Jones taking over the No.1 spot in the P4P list
As a result of UFC 285, there have been major shifts in the organization’s official pound-for-pound rankings. Three years after his last fight, Jon Jones returned to the octagon and easily defeated Ciryl Gane. The UFC has promoted Jon Jones to the top P4P spot after his comeback victory. In a single week, ‘Bones’ climbed nine spots to take the top spot.
Jones’s continued presence in the top 10 was surprising given that, despite his current fighter status, he had not competed in the octagon for quite some time. Yet, after only one bout, he has already eclipsed both Alexander Volkanovski and Islam Makhachev, the latter of whom recently defeated the former in a fight between the top two pound-for-pound fighters.
Reacting to Jones taking over his spot as the pound-for-pound best in a recent episode of Steve-O’s Wild Ride!, Volkanovski stated:
“It’s a big deal. I’ll be honest with you, [becoming] a champion was great, being pound-for-pound No. 1 [was greater], which Jon Jones took that from me (laughs). I don’t think with all of the [rankings], but the UFC, yes. He actually said it really well where it goes by what you’ve done lately as well. It’s gonna go with that you might have done a whole heap four years ago, but that’s got nothing to do with now. You are not pound-for-pound, we don’t know what you’re doing right now. So, that’s always gonna come into play, though.”
“It was just that one [fight in three years], you’re right. But what he did, moving up — at least he moved up and showed that pound-for-pound comes into play. The body of work that we’ve done in the last three years, obviously, a lot of people are gonna be like, ‘Look what Alex has done in the last three years.’ You can get that, but at the same time, look at what Jon Jones has done as well. Can I really argue that? He’s gonna be one of the greatest of all time. For him to take that is like, ‘Damn it! What do you do?’”
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