UFC Hall of Famer Rashad Evans is torn about his former rival Jon Jones fighting Tom Aspinall.
But there is a part of him that wants to see Jones ‘go out on top’ and never fight again, instead of risking it all against Britain’s Aspinall.
Jones vs Aspinall has been the most talked about UFC fight for yearsEvans fought Jones once during his 13-year UFC spell, suffering a unanimous decision defeat to his fellow American in April 2012, with the light heavyweight title on the line.
Jones went on to defend the belt a further 10 times and now rules the UFC heavyweight division.
He submitted Ciryl Gane to win the title in March 2023 before stopping Stipe Miocic last November in his first defence of it.
The 37-year-old has since left Mancunian UFC interim heavyweight champion Aspinall waiting in the wings, with the latter getting more and more frustrated at not getting his title shot.
Several MMA fans believe Jones would leave the sport with a tarnished legacy if he doesn’t fight Aspinall, while Evans remains a little unsure on the whole situation.
“I’m kind of torn about it,” he told MMA Fighting. “I feel like the part of me, the fan side of me, definitely wants to see it. I want to see it for sure.
“But the other part of me who’s like very impressed with what Jon Jones is able to do, wants to see him go out on top and not even have to [fight again].
“Because there’s the thing about it, there’s always going to be somebody.
“He beats Tom Aspinall, people [will say], Yeah, [but] there’s this new guy.’ There’s always going to be that one last dragon to vanquish.
“Part of me can respect him for not taking the fight, but another part of me is just like, ‘Man, you better step the f*** up and beat this boy.
Evans said his fan side wants to see the fight happen, but his other half wants Jones to retireGetty ‘Suga’ fought Jones in Atlanta, Georgia, for the UFC light heavyweight title in April 2012GETTY He went on to praise Aspinall for his physicality and athleticismGetty“I’m kind of mixed about it to be honest.”
Evans then called Aspinall ‘a dope a** fighter’, saying he ‘moves like a middleweight’ when explaining how the current heavyweight division has progressed to hold some of the most athletic guys in the promotion over the last 10 years.
Frustrations are starting to mount in Aspinall’s camp as he has still not been awarded his UFC heavyweight title fight with Jones.
He earned his interim status by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich in November 2023 and defended it eight months later at UFC Manchester in similar style against Curtis Blaydes.
Any UFC interim champion would usually get a shot at unified status at this point, but Aspinall remains sidelined.
In fact, the 31-year-old officially became the UFC’s longest-reigning interim champion in the organisation’s history last week.
Aspinall is simply waiting for Jones to say yes to a unified title fightgetty He is one of the deadliest heavyweights in the world, having finished all but one of his UFC opponents in the first roundGetty“We want some fight news,” Aspinall said in a frustrating update on his YouTube channel.
“I’m training twice a day…I’m doing everything that an elite athlete does every day without the competition, and that part has nothing to do with me.”
His dad, Andy Aspinall, who quit his job in IT to teach Aspinall MMA 20 years ago, chimed in and expressed even more anger, calling out Jones and the UFC
“It’s stupid,” he said. “I have no idea the reason why the UFC don’t really want Tom to fight anybody else other than Jon Jones.
“They’re saying, ‘Stay tuned.’ That’s the message they wanted Tom to give out to people…we had the meeting with Hunter [Campbell] (UFC CBO) and they’re going to try and fix the fight with Jon Jones.
“We’re in April now, still waiting for [Jones] to say, ‘I’ll have a fight,’ or ‘I’ll not have a fight.’
“And I don’t really understand that. He’s a fighter who should be having fights. Why is [Jones] still sitting around not giving an answer as to whether he’s going to fight or not?”
UFC CEO White has been consistently adamant that Jones vs Aspinall will happen, even offering a rare ‘100 per cent’ guarantee last year.
But, MMA fans are still in limbo over the entire situation, and tensions are starting to boil over, with the promotion yet to announce their huge main event for UFC 317 during International Fight Week this summer.
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