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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Just hours after undergoing elbow surgery, Jon Jones took time to fire back at Tom Aspinall for his repeated callouts on social media.

The reigning UFC heavyweight champion, who suffered a torn pectoral muscle last year that delayed his fight with Stipe Miocic, will likely return in the summer but he’s been the center of attention for Aspinall for the past few days. After he claimed the interim UFC heavyweight title on Jones’ absence, Aspinall has rather loudly called for a title unification bout rather than rebooking the fight with Miocic.

The latest jab came via TikTok when Aspinall posted a video showing that he’d be willing to wait decades for the Jones fight, which finally caught the attention of the fighter UFC CEO Dana White often calls the greatest of all-time.

“I recognize only four of these names on your resume,” Jones wrote in a now deleted post on Instagram. “Launching TikTok attacks while I’m over here on the injury list is just whack. You get no points for that where I’m from.”

Jones continued in a separate post on Twitter.

“Only four recognizable opponents, and already the king of England, must be nice,” Jones wrote. “There will be legendary tales told about you and your infamous call outs.”

Jones also scoffed at Aspinall’s supposed frustration that he will have to wait for a chance to unify the titles with Miocic getting the next crack at the undisputed champion.

“I mean, it doesn’t really work like that,” Jones said. “I was a champion when I was 23 years old, you can’t show up at age 30 pretending like you’ve been chasing me your whole life. I have no clue who 90% of his résumé is, meanwhile, I’ve been highlighting UFC events my entire career.”

Jones’ response is the first time he’s directly addressed Aspinall, who was booked in a short-notice interim title fight against Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 this past November. The interim title bout came together in large part to fill the void left by Jones and Miocic after they were pulled from the card.

At the time, Aspinall was riding a one-fight win streak after he returned from his only loss in the UFC, which happened following a torn ACL he suffered during a showdown with Curtis Blaydes.

After knocking Pavlovich out to win the interim belt, Aspinall expressed his desire to eventually clash with Jones one day but his rhetoric has ramped up in recent days. He previously got a response from Miocic, who told the outspoken Brit that he never caused a delay in booking the Jones fight but “once I get this win, let’s talk to unify the belt.”

Despite Aspinall’s calls to skip over Miocic to face Jones next, White has repeatedly stated that he has no desire to alter the UFC’s plans. Jones will still face Miocic once he’s healthy again and Aspinall could potentially stay busy against a different opponent.

At least Aspinall knows he got Jones’ attention, although he probably didn’t get the response he wanted.

Update: Aspinall responded to Jones Tuesday morning.

Update: Jones responded to Aspinall.

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Between boxing, kickboxing, and MMA, Israel Adesanya has made the walk as a professional combat sports athlete an astonishing 116 times. Oh, and he’s won a whole lot more than he’s lost! A two-time UFC Middleweight champion with five defenses to his credit, Adesanya built up a remarkable MMA resume in a very short period of time.

Perhaps that was part of his downfall.

Adesanya was expected to walk over Sean Strickland, who received the title shot largely because Dricus Du Plessis was unavailable. It was a match up of strikers, and one was an elite kickboxer, while the other wasn’t really known for his knockout power or offensive depth. Naturally, Strickland wiped the floor with the champion and walked away with his title.

The combat sports world was widely shocked, and Adesanya himself admitted that time off was necessary. It seemed like a long layoff was coming, but “Stylebender” has since changed his tune. While he’s now admitting he’s closer to the end of his career than the start, a timeline is starting to become established: Adesanya also fully believes he’ll fight in 2024.

“That’s why I’m taking this time off. People were talking like I’m retiring or taking five years off. I’m like, ‘chill, don’t worry.’ My time off is different to most people’s time off. People take two years off. I’m not doing that,” Israel Adesanya said on his YouTube channel (via Cole Shelton). “Like I said, four fights in 14 months. I know I’m on the back end of my career. I know when I’m done with this, I’m going to miss it. So I was trying to do as much as I can. Then I realized it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. I’m still going to enjoy this. When I fight, I know I’ll fight (this year). I don’t know when I’m going to fight, but when I fight, it’s going to be quality. It’s not going to be quantity.”

If Adesanya only has a few fights left, the big question is what path will the 34 year old pursue? He could chase the Alex Pereira trilogy and Light Heavyweight belt, seek revenge on Sean Strickland, or finally look to settle his bad blood with Du Plessis. All worthy objectives, yet Adesanya may be forced to pick and choose if he’s really closing out his career.

Insomnia

UFC 299 is looking about as stacked as UFC 300 was promised to be.

Colby Covington’s antics have earned him a militia of weird fans but also enough disdain to follow him throughout real life. Worth it?

Bantamweights? Veterans? Iron chins? Oh yeah, this right here is the good stuff.

Khalil Rountree is so slick with it. I love the random training clips of him that pop up!

Giga Chikadze calls for the Josh Emmett fight to be rebooked:

I’m not sure there’s any correlation between boxing ability and this exercise, but I find myself impressed nevertheless.

One of the forgotten “what ifs” in MMA history: what if Frank Mir didn’t hurt himself in the motorcycle crash?

Slips, rips, and KO clips

An early swarm gets it done!

Tran landed a nice pull counter but then hung out in the pocket too long …

Leaning forward at the waist a touch baited his opponent, and Khalidov timed the advance perfectly.

Random Land

Pearls are weird.

Midnight Music: Alt. rock, 1995

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Aleksandar Rakic isn’t worried about Jiri Prochazka’s unorthodox style.

The April 13 duel between Rakic and Prochazka at UFC 300 is expected to be a striker’s delight, with both fighters known for doing damage in the standup. Rakic has had plenty of time to study the former light heavyweight champion, as he’s been on the shelf since May 2022 after suffering a serious knee injury in a loss to Jan Blachowicz — and from what he knows of Prochazka, he’s confident that he can take his spot in the contender’s line.

“If you see the fights with Jiri, in almost every UFC fight he got dropped,” Rakic said on The MMA Hour. “I would not say that his chin is weak, but he feels the punches really different than, for example, me. I was really surprised about the takedown against Pereira, he did it very well. This is one of the holes, to be almost losing every fight and then the other thing is, the good thing is, he’s always coming back and always finishes strong. So that’s a good thing about him.

“I just need to be careful and to be focused with him all the time.”

Prochazka suffered his first UFC loss this past November at UFC 295, where he was defeated via TKO by the always dangerous Alex Pereira in a vacant light heavyweight title fight. It wasn’t the first time Prochazka had been stung by a striker, but he’d previously had success winning back-and-forth battles with Glover Teixeira, Dominick Reyes, and Volkan Oezdemir. He didn’t get the chance to come back against “Poatan,” however.

As for Rakic, he’s coming off just his second UFC loss, though neither of his octagon setbacks have been definitive. In December 2019, he lost a contentious split decision against Oezdemir, and against Blachowicz the bout ended prematurely when Rakic tore his ACL in the third round of their fight.

A rematch between Rakic and Blachowicz was scheduled for UFC 297, but after Blachowicz withdrew due to the need to have surgery done on his shoulder, Rakic was instead moved to UFC 300 to face Prochazka.

“Ask me, of course, I want to close this chapter with Jan,” Rakic said. “But I really don’t feel that I lost the fight against Jan because he was the better man. I lost the fight because I injured myself and I beat myself, so this fight I didn’t see as a revenge. It was just a normal, regular fight.

“But I think for the fans, it’s more exciting to fight Jiri Prochazka. He’s from Czech Republic, I live in Austria, we are really close to each other, we are both European, we are both young, he has a very exciting style so I’d love to test myself against a former champion in this style.”

Rakic steps back into a light heavyweight title picture that is filled with question marks. Pereira is yet to schedule his first title defense, top contenders Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker run it back after their first outing ended in a no-contest, former champion Jamahal Hill is still recovering from an Achilles injury, and the streaking Khalil Rountree Jr. also looms as a possible title challenger.

Depending on how he looks in his comeback fight, Rakic believes he has a chance of fighting for the title next.

“I think if I beat Jiri in good fashion, with a good performance, I will be in the title picture straightaway,” Rakic said. “I don’t know how long [Pereira] is going to take for the recovery, we don’t know what’s going to happen with the winner of Ankalaev-Walker, what they’re going to do, but I believe if I beat Jiri in good fashion I will be right into the mix.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Tom Aspinall’s patience is running thing and Jon Jones is tired of hearing about it.

Aspinall, who currently sits as the UFC’s interim heavyweight champion, desperately wants to unify his strap with that of current undisputed titleholder Jon Jones. Unfortunately, he’ll have to stay patient as ‘Bones’ continues to recover from a torn pectoral he sustained a few months back whilst training for a previously scheduled clash with Stipe Miocic at UFC 295.

However, Jones won’t be facing Aspinall when he does make his highly anticipated return. Instead, he’ll meet Miocic as originally intended with the interim champ set to unify his belt with the winner. That has understandably rubbed Aspinall the wrong way with the Brit sharing his discontent over the situation repeatedly on social media.

Jon Jones goes in on Tom Aspinall

After weeks of lambasting both Jones and Miocic online, ‘Bones’ is finally snapping back, letting Tom Aspinall know exactly where he stands in the grand scheme of things via a series of scathing posts on X.

“I love how a fighter can do an interview about me every week, make silly memes on the Internet. And then, when I respond, they play the victim role. Lol,” Jones wrote.

“Tom, you talking about someone’s ego running wild is one of the most hypocritical things ever., You literally haven’t kept my balls out of your mouth since you won that imaginary championship,” Jones added. “Both you and Serge have zero championships between your name. It’s funny that you actually walk around feeling like the world champion. Especially when the actual champion is undefeated, and had a flawless last performance. Literally didn’t get hit my last fight.”

“My stipe fight was booked well before yours came along, you weren’t even the back up fighter,” Jones continued. “Trust me you’re the one who is coming around here with the inflated ego and entitlement. That intern championship means absolutely nothing if you seriously haven’t noticed yet. All your fight did at Madison Square Garden was confused the fans. Good thing the UFC and it’s too long time standing champions are all on the same page. The UfC, Stipe and I have unfinished business, it’s really just that simple.”

Aspinall claimed the interim title at UFC 295, scoring a sensational 69-second knockout against Sergei Pavlovich in the co-main event. From the moment his hand was raised, Aspinall has been lobbying for a title unification bout with Jon Jones. Recently, his frustration has reached a boiling point which prompted both Jones and Miocic to react.

Miocic took a more measured approach, telling Aspinall that “once I get this win, let’s talk to unify the belt” while ‘Bones’ went full tilt, attacking Aspinall’s resume.

LowKickMMA.com

As Tom Aspinall is desperate to unify the titles and get his hands on the undisputed gold, his feud with heavyweight champion Jon Jones continues to intensify.

Rumors are still pointing toward ‘Bones’ making his first defense of the title against former champ Stipe Miocic later this year. Among the many who believe the division is being held up is Aspinall, who is now pushing for his shot at the belt.

After weeks of back and forth, the rivalry between Jon Jones and the interim title holder Tom Aspinall has shown no signs of slowing down. The pair recently had another social media exchange following Jones’ comments.

“Only four recognizable opponents, and already the king of England, must be nice,” Jones said while referencing Aspinall. “There will be legendary tales told about you and your infamous callouts.”

Only four recognizable opponents, and already the king of England, must be nice. There will be legendary tales told about you and your infamous call outs. 😒

— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024

Jones wasn’t done there, however. After a fan insisted that the Brit had done everything he could to earn his title shot and shouldn’t be blamed for being angry at the situation, the champion had more to say.

“I mean, it doesn’t really work like that. I was a champion when I was 23 years old, you cant show up at age 30 pretending like you’ve been chasing me your whole life. I have no clue who 90% of his resume is, meanwhile, I’ve been highlighting UFC events my entire career.”

This caught the attention of Aspinall who continued to call for his chance, claiming that the champion’s greatness is the reason he’s eager for the matchup.

“Jon you’re letting your ego run wild here mate. I’m not downplaying your resume, it’s incredible,” Aspinall said in response to Jones. “Far superior to mine.”

“You are known as the best fighter ever, and that’s exactly why I want to beat you. Surely you can understand that?”

Jon you’re letting your ego run wild here mate. I’m not downplaying you’re résumé, it’s incredible. Far superior to mine. You are known as the best fighter ever, and that’s EXACTLY why I want to beat you. Surely you can understand that? https://t.co/jCo4Obz9pY

— Tom Aspinall (@AspinallMMA) January 9, 2024

Upset at essentially being dismissed, Jones shared a brief rant about how easy it is in today’s world to be replaced no matter how successful you are.

“It’s a wild world we live in! People can be so quick to try to replace you, throw you away, discredit your work. That’s the best thing about them stats or just being able to see the fruits of your labor.”

“Be an absolute savage at what you do, at whatever capacity that may be. Let the work speak for itself, be undeniable in this world ladies and gentlemen. Be absolutely undeniable.”

It’s a wild world we live in! People can be so quick to try to replace you, throw you away, discredit your work. That’s the best thing about them stats or just being able to see the fruits of your labor. Be an absolute savage at what you do, at whatever capacity that may be. Let…

— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024

Tom Aspinall went on to question, if they’re worried about building their legacy, why is he constantly turned down for a fight by Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic.

Jon Jones: “you need to fight people who build your legacy”
Me: “great idea. Absolutely”
UFC: “do you wanna fight Tom?”
Stipe: “no”
Jon: “no”
Me: “🤔

— Tom Aspinall (@AspinallMMA) January 9, 2024

Related: Tom Aspinall unleashes epic rant on Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic situation: ‘It’s about who’s the best right now’

The tempers continued to rise and Jon Jones let his feelings be known through a series of tweets.

I love how a fighter can do an interview about me every week, make silly memes on the Internet. And then, when I respond, they play the victim role. Lol

— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024

Tom, you talking about someone’s ego running wild is one of the most hypocritical things ever., You literally haven’t kept my balls out of your mouth since you won that imaginary championship. Both you and Serge have zero championships between your name. It’s funny that you…

— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024

After being called out for being the egotistical one of the two by Jones, Aspinall told his rival that if he’s not willing to fight, he’ll no longer chase the unified title clash.

Forget all the other stuff about titles and résumé ect. I just think I can beat you in a fight mate, but if you don’t want to, I won’t keep chasing you 🏃‍♂️ 🛑 https://t.co/JIwzyHxZTC

— Tom Aspinall (@AspinallMMA) January 9, 2024

Jones then hinted at a potential imminent retirement before stating that a win over Aspinall does almost nothing to his already Hall-of-Fame-worthy legacy.

Yep, I’m terrified. No matter who would’ve won that interim, championship, the narrative still would be the same. The goat is getting older now, and is running from fights. 36-year-old lifelong champion starting to contemplate retirement. What a chicken. https://t.co/yCc6YNG2QM

— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024

What I refuse to do is be like a lot of these other fighters who stuck around too long. That just won’t happen. Your boy Bones Jones over here, despite what a lot of people may like to think. Ive set myself up pretty well in life. I want Stipe for my résumé, outside of that, I…

— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024

I’m not saying that, what I am saying is, coming back from two different surgeries, and defeating Stipe is my primary goal, and a huge feat if you ask me. We both have already agreed to massive contracts, a win for either one of us would be absolutely massive for either of our… https://t.co/lfs4VHZJBE

— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts