Daniel Cormier thinks Jon Jones is going to fight Tom Aspinall, eventually.
For nearly two years, one of the biggest stories in MMA has been the potential heavyweight title fight between Jones and Aspinall, with very little to show for it. While UFC CEO Dana White insists the fight is going to happen at some point, Jones has been increasingly cryptic and noncommittal to the bout, while Aspinall is left waiting for his opportunity to unify titles. And according to Cormier, the hold up is Jones coming to terms with a new reality: he is suddenly the old man in the sport.
“Jon now is a 38-year-old man looking at a 30-year-old man that’s bigger, that’s younger, that’s fresher, and going — it’s flipped,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “‘I don’t see the wear and tear on their faces anymore, I see the wear and tear on mine.’ He saw with Stipe [Miocic], Stipe looked older from all that time away. Now he’s looking down at a young man, and he’s like, ’Eh.’
“He’s not scared, make no mistake about it. But I think it’s enough to question. And you know what I think a big worry might be for him? With Aspinall, he could potentially get knocked out. Like, legitimately knocked out and put on his back out cold. I just don’t know that he wants to have that visual of him in the world. He’s knocked out a lot of guys and he’s never had —because I’ve seen myself get beat, and I’m like, ‘God, that’s such a horrible visual every time.’”
Jones has never been knocked out in competition, with his only career loss infamously coming by way of disqualification. Aspinall, meanwhile, has knocked out his past three opponents in a combined 3 minutes and 22 seconds of fight time. That’s part of what makes the matchup so compelling for fans, arguably the greatest fighter of all time taking on perhaps his most dangerous challenge ever. But at this point, fans seem to be losing hope that the bout will ever happen. Cormier, though, still believes, if for no other reason than Jones’s ego won’t let him walk away.
“I don’t know that he vacates without fighting him, because I think the visual and the lasting thought would be that ‘He ran from him,’ and I don’t know his ego could handle that he ran from someone,” Cormier said. “The idea that people would think he is afraid means more to him than going out there and fighting him and taking the chance. Especially when there’s a real possibility that he just outclasses Tom Aspinall.
“There’s a real possibility that he goes out there and he outclasses Tom Aspinall. You don’t know. So I think that he will fight him. I don’t think they’ll need to strip him, I think he’ll fight him. And even though he could walk away and go, ‘I’m the best, I don’t need to do anything else.’ The idea that he ran is going to be too strong of a pull for him as he goes into the next phase of his career.”
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