UFC interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall doesn’t blame Jon Jones for not doing a faceoff with him.

Aspinall and Jones ran into each other at the Arnold Sports Festival. There, the two were talking to one another, as Aspinall wanted to set up a future fight with the two, but ‘Bones’ didn’t seem too keen and also didn’t do a faceoff for the potential fight.

According to Aspinall, he says Jones not doing the faceoff was smart as now it doesn’t lock him in to having to fight him.

“I wanted to face off,” Tom Aspinall said on The MMA Hour. “Jon’s smart, you know? … Jon will not say anywhere — you can’t find it, it’s not out there — that he will fight me. He won’t say it anywhere publicly. He won’t say it. You can’t find a clip, a quote, nothing, anywhere, of Jon Jones saying, ‘One day I’m going to fight Tom Aspinall, and I’m going to freaking beat the brakes off him.” That’s what I’m going to do.’ That doesn’t exist. He doesn’t want any evidence, anywhere, of him agreeing to any kind of fight with me, because he doesn’t want to go back on that.

“He doesn’t want to do a faceoff because that promotes a potential fight. When I ask him, ‘Jon are we going to do this?’ He doesn’t say, ‘Absolutely. Let me get Stipe out of the way and we’ll do it.’ He’ll instead say, ‘Oh, maybe one day.’ Because he doesn’t want that quote of, ‘We’re going to fight one day.’ It’s super smart.”

Of course, Jon Jones has been trying to secure his first heavyweight title defense against Stipe Miocic. With that, Aspinall may have to defend his interim title next, and a rematch against Curtis Blaydes could happen.

Tom Aspinall says Jon Jones fight doesn’t ‘define’ him

With Jon Jones not showing much interest in Tom Aspinall, the Brit doesn’t care if the fight doesn’t happen.

Although Aspinall wants to fight Jones, he says if it doesn’t happen it won’t hurt his career or his legacy.

“Honestly, I don’t spend my days thinking about Jon Jones,” Aspinall said. “On the contrary to what people think, I’m not desperate for it. That fight doesn’t define my career. It would be great, it would be nice, but I’ve got other ways to prove myself. I’m going to be around this sport for at least another five years. At least. Minimum.”

So it would be great. If I get the fight, fantastic. But I’m not like, ‘Oh, look at what Jon’s done again! It’s never going to happen! Oh my God!’ That’s Jon’s business. Jon can do his thing. If we fight, great. If we don’t, great as well. All respect to Jon Jones, one of the GOATs of the sport.”

Aspinall is coming off a first-round TKO win over Sergei Pavlovich back in December to become the interim heavyweight champion.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Jamahal Hill is primed and ready to score another upset and prove doubters wrong. This time on one of MMA’s all-time biggest stages ever.

It’s been over one full year since we last saw “Sweet Dreams” inside the octagon. When Hill won the light heavyweight title against Glover Teixeira via unanimous decision at UFC 283 in January 2023, he became the first Dana White’s Contender Series alum to hold UFC gold. Unfortunately, his reign was short-lived and halted by a torn achilles tendon that he suffered last July.

Hill’s vacating of the title prompted the promotion to book a clash of former light heavyweight and middleweight champions, Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira for UFC 294 this past October. Pereira came out on top as one of the few fighters to win titles in two different divisions when he TKO’d Prochazka in round two. Known for his incredible striking acumen, Pereira has been comfortably favored throughout the community as too much for the American in UFC 300’s main event this Saturday. However, the role of the underdog is being relished by Hill, to put it mildly.

“I’ve never been dominated in the striking game,” Hill told UFC.com. “I’ve been caught, I’ve had my s*** rocked, some people have had some moments, but nobody has ever dominated me in any facet of striking, ever, in my life. So for me to be having this fight now and to come in and that’s all this dude does — they say he’s the best striker in the world, possibly of all time. Hell yeah, I’m excited for that because I feel that’s a title I hold; that’s a level my name should ring on.

“Throughout the whole time I’ve been fighting, it’s grapplers; I’ve been fighting wrestlers. They can strike, but they would rather take me down.”

It’s been a nearly perfect 14-fight career for the 32-year-old Hill. Only twice has he not seen his hand raised. Even then, his first non-victory was initially a first-round TKO over Klidson Abreu until a positive marijuana test overturned it to a no-contest. One TKO over Ovince Saint Preux later and Hill got caught in the crafty guard of Paul Craig, who finished “Sweet Dreams” via TKO in two minutes at UFC 263 in June 2021. It’s been smooth sailing with four straight wins since, three of which came via knockout.

Ultimately, Hill feels he’s been tested by strikers with good grappling who have needed to resort to falling back on those ground methods after feeling his power. Despite Pereira’s improvements on the mat, Hill sees nowhere else this fight can go for the Brazilian champion.

“This dude don’t have that f****** option. He don’t have that option of ‘I’m gonna see if I can take him down.’ He grabs me, he’s f****** done! He grabs me, he’s done,” Hill said. “I’m not Jan [Blachowicz]. I’m not Jiri. I’m not one of these dudes that got you on the ground and laid on you. When I get you down, I get on top of you, I f*** you up, period.

“Only thing that he can do is strike with me. Shut up. Shut up, bro. He’s been pieced up before. We’ve seen him pieced up. We’ve seen him dominated. We’ve seen him knocked out. We’ve seen him rocked. We’ve seen your level. We’ve never seen my level. I’ve never even seen my peak level.”

Achilles tears have become more common in team sports in recent years, specifically in the NFL with players of various positions. It’s been a season-ender for all who suffer it, as it requires a six-month minimum of recovery time.

Coincidentally, Hill’s injury came while playing basketball rather than training or doing MMA-related activities. Due to the injury’s general severity, fans have wondered whether or not this return would be too soon, especially as it was put together somewhat sporadically with other UFC 300 main event options crumbling. The process was all taken care of properly, according to Hill.

“I had the best doctor, the best team available, the best medicine available to me, so even then, it was never ‘Oh my God — this is it for me,’” Hill said. “Everybody that I talked to told me, ‘You’ll be good. This not the same injury it was 10, 20 years ago.’ I just had a lot of things that were handled for me right away, so I didn’t have to worry about it; my mind was already shifted on the goal.

“The goal was to do everything right with recovery and make it back as soon as possible, in the best health that I could. That was the challenge; all that other s*** got pushed out of the way for me. It was just about doing the right things in recovery.

“When the injury happened, I was in a really good place mentally in my life, so it was devastating and it hurt — I had some things that I had to come to terms with — but I was in a good spot mentally, so I was able to come to terms with them really quick and focus on the goal,” he concluded.

TOP STORIES

Heavyweight. Tom Aspinall says Jon Jones was ‘smart’ to avoid faceoff with him: ‘That promotes a potential fight’

Matchmaking. Paulo Costa: Sean Strickland turned down fight with me, Strickland responds

Contention. Michael Bisping responds to Justin Gaethje: ‘He deserves a f****** title fight, but right now, you’re booked against Max Holloway’

Blueprint. Calvin Kattar hopes to repeat what Sean O’Malley did to Aljamain Sterling at UFC 300

Confidence. Arman Tsarukyan predicts first-round knockout of Charles Oliveira at UFC 300

Answers. Monday Mailbag: Was Chris Curtis robbed by Brendan Allen? Plus, Jon Jones’ latest controversy

Business. Endeavor, TKO buying back over $ 311 million worth of stock from Vince McMahon

VIDEO STEW

The MMA Hour.

UFC 300 Embedded 1.

A Blessed BMF Resume.

Full fights.

PFL Fight Week.

Advice from RJJ.

Gaethje’s Road to UFC 300.

Nickal hype.

Wonderboy talks “unstoppable” power.

Conor spars.

An Almighty diet.

LISTEN UP

On To the Next One. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alex K. Lee discuss matches to make after UFC Vegas 90.

MORNING MUSIC

More Warning always.

Go to Twitter, use the #MorningReport hashtag, or find one of my tweets with it, and drop me a jam you’re currently really into. I’ll pick the best one alongside my daily choice and give you a shoutout! You can also share in the comments below — those are just harder to sift through sometimes!

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Beefs.

Classic Jim.

Searching.

Team work.

Busted.

Lineup.

All thanks to the hair.

An all-time favorite.

The climb.

Both wonderful.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Reece McLaren (16-9) vs. Hu Yong (12-4); ONE Fight Night 22, May 4

Ihor Potieira (20-5) vs. Michel Pereira (30-11, 2 NC); UFC 301, May 4

Aspen Ladd (11-5) vs. Ekaterina Shakalova (8-1); Bellator Paris, May 17

Piera Rodríguez (9-1) vs. Ariane Carnelossi (14-3); UFC Vegas 92, May 18

Saori Oshima (13-4) vs. Aya Murakami (7-1); Deep Jewels 45, May 26

Sumudaerji (16-6) vs. Joshua Van (10-1); UFC 302, June 1

Andre Muniz (24-6) vs. Ikram Aliskerov (15-1); UFC Vegas 93, June 15

Andrei Arlovski (34-23) vs. Martin Buday (13-2); UFC Vegas 93, June 15

Muhammad Naimov (11-2) vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan (8-2); UFC Saudi Arabia, June 22

Viviane Araújo (12-6) vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius (10-3); UFC Fight Night, July 13

FINAL THOUGHTS

The more Hill speaks, the more interested he gets me in his fight. Guy is confident. You love to see it.

Thanks for reading!

EXIT POLL

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @DrakeRiggs_ on Twitter and let him know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

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We did it everyone! It’s UFC 300 fight week! Whoooooooo!

This past Saturday we slogged our way through UFC Vegas 90, so now it’s onto the best week of the year. But before we get to that, there are a few loose ends to tie up from last weekend, so let’s go ahead and address those, and then the party can begin.

UFC Vegas 90 Main Event

“How is Curtis’ leg? And were the judges drunk when the scored Allen the winner?”

ICYMI: Brendan Allen took home a split decision over Chris Curtis at UFC Vegas 90, and Curtis likely tore his hamstring in the final moments of the fight.

At this current juncture, we have no new developments on the state of Curtis’s leg. He’s scheduled for an MRI on Monday, which will confirm things, but it seems extremely likely he tore his hamstring and is looking at four or more months of recovery. That sucks for Curtis. I tore my hamstring playing rugby in college and it’s literally never been the same. I rushed my recovery and kept screwing it up, and now it’s just an ever-present factor I have to negotiate around with stretching, warmup, and workouts. Granted, I’m not a professional athlete, but still, I was 20 years old. Curtis is 36. It’s fair to wonder how this will affect the final chapters of his career.

As for the judges, no, they were not drunk. Scoring the fight for Brendan Allen was entirely reasonable. I scored it 48-47 for Allen and I was not drunk. Allen pretty clearly won the first and fourth rounds. Curtis clearly won the second. I scored the third round for Curtis as well but it’s not insane to score it for Allen, even with the near knockdown, because Allen has so much back control. And the fifth is a toss-up I scored for Allen.

If you scored the fight for Chris Curtis, I have no issue with that, but this idea that Curtis was robbed is nuts. It was a competitive fight. Those happen among the best guys in the world.

Back control

“We have clear(ish) guidance for scoring striking impact with lacerations, welts, etc. When will we get the same for effective grappling? I think people bring up the fallacy of control time because we don’t have clarity.”

Probably never because athletic commissions are bafflingly bad at their jobs. It would be exceedingly easy to draw clear lines around scoring criteria for everything in MMA, but instead it’s all left vague. My belief is that they do this because if things were more clear, then commissions would be backed into a corner for disciplining judges who blatantly just make stuff up out there, whereas when they leave things open-ended, it obfuscates things to a point where they simply can do nothing.

But, to throw the commissions a bone, the scoring criteria for “effective grappling” is basically as clear as the “effective striking” criteria. Here’s the language from the ABC website:

“Successful execution of takedowns, submission attempts, reversals, and the achievement of advantageous positions that produce immediate or cumulative impact with the potential to contribute to the end of the match, with the IMMEDIATE weighing more heavily than the cumulative impact. It shall be noted that a successful takedown is not merely a changing of position, but the establishment of an attack from the use of the takedown.”

And this is where people consistently screw things up when it comes to arm-chair judging. Because the UFC has made it a talking point that “damage is prioritized” in scoring, large swaths of fans have interpreted that to mean damage is the only thing that matters. That’s categorically untrue. For one, damage isn’t actually the term, it’s “impact” and for another, it is the most important point thing, not the only thing. If, for instance, Islam Makhachev takes Alexander Volkanovski’s back for four minutes but Volk lands more punches over his shoulder, Volk does not win the round. Volk’s punches are not contributing to the end of the match. Makhachev’s back control is.

I’m talking about all of this here because, to circle back to the previous question, we now exist in the bizarro world where a lot of people believe that back control only matters if it leads to damage or a submission. That’s insane. Back control is an asymmetrical position. When Brendan Allen has Chris Curtis back for five-plus minutes, Curtis poses no threat to him. Conversely, for that entire time, Curtis is in immediate and catastrophic peril. To give that no credence is absurd. The gist of the reprioritized rules was to ensure that judges stopped rewarding takedowns for the sake of takedowns as the guard is a neutral position, not to make grappling a “submit them or bust” game. Just go watch kickboxing if you have no interest in rewarding grappling success.

And just to pick nits, “control time” isn’t a fallacy. It is part of the scoring criteria, just low down on the totem pole. “Fighting area control” is essentially third on the list of scoring criteria behind “effective striking/grappling” and “effective aggression.”

UFC Vegas 90 continued

I am always in favor of not watching UFC APEX cards if you have anything else to do. You can just check out MMAFighting.com (great website) for all the highlights and can’t-miss action.

That being said, the UFC Vegas 90 main card was actually pretty damn fun. The main event is probably frontrunner for Fight of the Year (it’s been a weak year) and still somehow didn’t even win Fight of the Night. Granted, not a lot at stake but still enjoyable fights. The prelims were a slog, but so it goes. If you spent your Saturday flicking between this and the Final Four, I don’t think you were too disappointed.

Autobiography

“Considering the recent release of Ronda’s second autobiography, if you could choose any MMA fighter past or present to write an autobiography, whose would you be most interested in reading?”

I’ve read a fair number of MMA biographies as a result of working in the space and just general curiosity, and almost all of them are pretty mediocre. Most fighters simply don’t have enough good stories to fill a book (really, most people don’t) and they also tend to want to put out the rose-colored versions of themselves. The exception to this is Shamrock: The World’s Most Dangerous Man. For my money, it’s the best of the bunch.

So with that in mind, if I got to choose one fighter to get an autobiography from, it would probably be Charles Bennett, AKA “Krazy Horse,” AKA “Felony.” Bennett has no shortage of stories and strikes me as the kind of man who wouldn’t sugarcoat his own transgressions. Plus, I doubt we’ll ever get that. Guys like Fedor Emelianenko and Khabib Nurmagomedov will inevitably have biographies about them. “Krazy Horse” likely won’t, but I’d love to read it.

Jon Jones

“Do you expect the Jon Jones situation overshadowed UFC 300 this weekend?”

ICYMI: Jon Jones was accused of assaulting a drug-testing agent, something he categorically denies.

HA! Of course not. UFC 300 is the biggest event in promotional history (not in terms of sales, but in terms of effort and focus). As things currently stand, Jones has not been charged with anything, and more importantly, he’s not fighting this weekend. If UFC 300 was going to be headlined by Jones vs. Stipe Miocic (as people once believed), then this would be an entirely different and much bigger story. But for now, this is just a blip. Of course, that could all change, but unless Jon Jones turns out to be the Zodiac Killer and that news breaks on Thursday, nothing that happens with him is going to overshadow UFC 300.

As for Mr. Jones, what more is there to say? I truly have no idea if he did was he’s being accused of. Perhaps Jones is completely innocent. But it sure is odd that these sorts of things just keep happening to him. When Nate Diaz has a USADA agent come to his house, police reports aren’t filed. When other fighters get inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, they don’t headbutt a police car and scream obscenities.

There’s an old saying that I keep coming back to with regards to Jon Jones and Conor McGregor: If you run into an asshole in the morning, you met an asshole. If you run into assholes all day long, you’re the asshole. A vast, vast majority of fighters have long, productive careers and never once run into the sort of trouble the follows Jones around like shadow, and there’s a simple explanation for why that is. Legally, Jones is and should remain innocent until proven guilty. But let’s just say I’m not rushing to give him the benefit of the doubt in the court of public opinion.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Perplexed
| BJPenn.com

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Something new is coming this Friday (April 12, 2024) at the UFC 300 weigh-ins, which are scheduled to go down inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. In recently released press information, the promotion teased a special “New UFC Equipment Announcement and Presentation” after the official weigh-ins conclude.

The announcement made its way to Twitter, and speculation began immediately. Almost universally, the same conclusion was drawn: UFC has to finally be fixing the gloves, right? It’s hard to think of an equipment alternative that would be worthy of a UFC 300 announcement.

The demand for fixed gloves has never been higher. 2024 has featured an abundance of eye pokes and eye poke-related controversies, including the recent bout between Chris Weidman and Bruno Silva. In that Middleweight contest, former champion Weidman managed to poke his opponent in the eye three separate times, and the final exchange controversially ended the fight.

Some have argued the solution is simple: CLOSE YOUR HANDS! Others blame the UFC gloves, which extend the fingers outward when they’re loose and relaxed. Different models of gloves — even all the way back to PRIDE FC! — curl inward a bit, meaning that relaxed fingers aren’t so extended.

Stay tuned.

Insomnia

Ladies and gentleman, I am pleased to announce: WE ARE SO F—KING BACK!

In all the chaos, I forgot about Valentina Shevchenko’s quest to get all the rubies in her belt. Does anyone else have a chance of racking up eight title defenses?!?

Ciryl Gane is one of the most talented fighters on the roster, but the ducking accusations are definitely adding up.

Here’s hoping Chris Curtis has a smooth recovery from his hamstring injury.

I’m convinced the sun will explode before Andrei Arlovski stops decisioning random unranked Heavyweights on UFC undercards. Get that money “Pitbull!”

Have you been priced out of live UFC events? Here’s an alternative!

Jon Jones’ latest incident brought this old Daniel Cormier quote back on the feed, and it feels evergreen.

Is bald Islam Makhachev going to be even more unstoppable?

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Referees are supposed to know when a fight is a squash match. Why let this random lady take a bunch of extra punches from an actual kickboxer?

An elbow in the clinch begins a barrage of strikes:

Well … that’s unfortunate.

Random Land

A couple ideas for the bucket list.

Midnight Music: Pop, 1967

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

MMAmania.com – All Posts

On the first episode of UFC 300 Embedded, Alex Pereira chows down with UFC legend Chuck Liddell, Max Holloway and Aljamain Sterling get ready to move up in weight, Jamahal Hill’s coach praises his striking skills, Justin Gaethje goes for a run in the mountains, Zhang Weili puts in work, and more.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Michael Chandler has re-ignited his once-fiery feud with the hot sauce-hawking lightweight fan favorite, Dustin Poirier.

17 months removed from their epic encounter at UFC 281, Chandler decided to kickstart things with ‘The Diamond’ by taking a dig at the former interim champion’s saucy side hustle.

“The old ‘I’d rather sell hot sauce vibe…‘ Chandler wrote on X, referencing a quote from current UFC women’s bantamweight champion Raquel Penning.

Clearly recognizing the dig, Poirier fired back, reminding ‘Iron’ how things played out during their first and only encounter inside the Octagon.

“Remember when I whipped your ass?” Poirier posted in response.

Chandler quickly snapped back, “He just can’t help himself. Calm down champ, life ain’t that serious. Whip my ass you did not…and you know it. I got caught, it happens in this game, as you well know.”

Chander lost the fight with Poirier via rear-naked choke in the third round. He has not fought since.

Michael Chandler closes in on fight with Conor McGregor while Dustin Poirier eyes title clash with Makhachev

Instead of staying active, the former Bellator MMA champion has chosen to sit on the sidelines, waiting for Irish megastar Conor McGregor to make his quote-unquote “greatest comeback in combat sports history.” It now looks as though Chandler’s patience is about to pay off as UFC CEO Dana White recently teased the imminent return of McGregor with many believing that the official announcement will go down at UFC 300 on Saturday night (April 13).

As for Dustin Poirier, ‘The Diamond’ is fresh off a spectacular come-from-behind victory over Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 299. With the promotion’s more viable contenders — Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira, Arman Tsarukyan — all booked for UFC 300, Poirier could find himself stepping in and scoring another shot at the lightweight title, currently held by Islam Makhachev.

LowKickMMA.com

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Tom Aspinall thinks Jon Jones isn’t keen on fighting him, ever.

Last November, Jones was supposed to defend his UFC heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295, until an injury forced the fight to get postponed. Instead, Aspinall stepped in on short notice to face back-up fighter Sergei Pavlovich for the interim heavyweight title, winning the belt in just 69 seconds.

After that, Aspinall called for a title unification bout with Jones, however Jones rebuffed him. That hasn’t stopped Aspinall from trying though, and in March, the two had an impromptu run-in with one another at the Arnold Sports Festival in Birmingham, England, which made headlines. But speaking Monday on The MMA Hour, Aspinall explained that it really wasn’t a big deal.

“We were both doing meet and greets, but we were like 20 meters away from each other,” Aspinall said. “The whole day! I was like, I can’t just leave without saying hello. I just want to go and say hello. But his manager didn’t want me to go over. … Even when I went over, I was pretty close to him and he was like, ‘No, no, no, no! You can’t do this!’ [I said,] ‘I’m just saying hello. I just want to say hello. I’m not trying to cause a scene or nothing.’

“I honestly wasn’t trying to cause a scene. I just wanted to see, face-to-face — I was like, ‘Are we going to do this? Oh, I’d like to,’ and he gave me the brush off. And that’s it.”

The interaction was so brief that Jones and Aspinall didn’t even have a faceoff with one another, which Aspinall believes was a calculated decision by Jones.

“I wanted to face off,” Aspinall said. “Jon’s smart, you know? … Jon will not say anywhere — you can’t find it, it’s not out there — that he will fight me. He won’t say it anywhere publicly. He won’t say it. You can’t find a clip, a quote, nothing, anywhere, of Jon Jones saying, ‘One day I’m going to fight Tom Aspinall, and I’m going to freaking beat the brakes off him. That’s what I’m going to do.’ That doesn’t exist. He doesn’t want any evidence, anywhere, of him agreeing to any kind of fight with me, because he doesn’t want to go back on that.

“He doesn’t want to do a faceoff because that promotes a potential fight. When I ask him, ‘Jon are we going to do this?’ He doesn’t say, ‘Absolutely. Let me get Stipe out of the way and we’ll do it.’ He’ll instead say, ‘Oh, maybe one day.’ Because he doesn’t want that quote of, ‘We’re going to fight one day.’ It’s super smart.”

Jones’s refusal to engage with Aspinall in any way contrasts his various interactions with former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. Despite the two fighters being in different promotions, Jones was more than willing to engage in a prolonged faceoff with Ngannou at a PFL event last year.

As things stand, Jones appears to be set on fighting Miocic sometime later this year, and while he left the door open for a possible fight with Aspinall somewhere down the line, many fans believe Jones will retire after facing Miocic. Even if he doesn’t retire, that’s not the only thing that could play havoc with Jones’ fighting career. The mercurial superstar has an extensive history of legal troubles, and once against found himself in controversy over the weekend, adding another possible wrinkle to Jones’s future in the cage.

So, given the massive uncertainty regarding a possible Jones fight, Aspinall isn’t too concerned one way or another if they ever do meet inside the octagon.

“Honestly, I don’t spend my days thinking about Jon Jones,” Aspinall said. “On the contrary to what people think, I’m not desperate for it. That fight doesn’t define my career. It would be great, it would be nice, but I’ve got other ways to prove myself. I’m going to be around this sport for at least another five years. At least. Minimum. So it would be great. If I get the fight, fantastic. But I’m not like, ‘Oh, look at what Jon’s done again! It’s never going to happen! Oh my God!’ That’s Jon’s business. Jon can do his thing. If we fight, great. If we don’t, great as well. All respect to Jon Jones, one of the GOATs of the sport.”

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