One former UFC fan favorite has shared where he believes Jon Jones took a wrong turn in dismissing Tom Aspinall.
Jones will be putting his heavyweight gold at stake against Stipe Miocic inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. The legacy fight will take place this Saturday night. As “Bones” enters his first title defense, Aspinall looms large going into UFC 309.
A certain “Immortal” UFC legend believes that Jones made a misstep in the buildup to this weekend’s card.
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Matt Brown Criticizes Jon Jones’ Recent Comments on Tom Aspinall
In an interview with Kevin Iole, Jon Jones was dismissive of what a win over interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall would do for his career. Matt Brown doesn’t believe Jones is afraid of Aspinall, but he does think “Bones” is playing the game, just as many other champions are doing today.
“I guess you kind of have to define what ‘ducking’ is, right?” UFC legend Matt Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Jon’s not scared. I don’t believe that for a second. Is he playing the game and choosing not to fight Tom Aspinall? Absolutely.
“It’s the proper fight to make. I don’t think there’s any question about that. He wants the bigger fight with Alex Pereira. I don’t think that’s what a champion should do but that’s what every champion is doing now, right? They’re all wanting to move up a weight class. They’re all wanting to fight the big fights. Sean O’Malley wanted to fight [Ilia Topuria]. That’s what every champion is doing now.”
Brown admits that he took issue with Jones saying he wants to fight again, just not against Aspinall.
“The fact that he brought up that he is going to fight again, and it’s not going to be the current interim champion, that’s a mistake on his part,” Brown said. “UFC should have sent a PR trainer out there to him or something. ‘How about we don’t talk about the future and focus on what we’re doing now. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.’
“But he crossed the bridge and opened up the door. He has to know when he says that, there’s going to be criticism that he’s ducking. It’s not a good look. Jon don’t give a f*ck. He just says it.”
While Jones is a heavy favorite this weekend, he is facing a fellow future Hall of Famer is Stipe Miocic. BJPenn.com will be providing live coverage of UFC 309 this Saturday. Be sure to peep the homepage for live updates.
