Written by Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
It turns out Jon Jones can make his wish come true to fight Alex Pereira but only after he gets through Tom Aspinall.
That’s the condition UFC CEO Dana White laid out for Jones just a day before he’s scheduled to face Stipe Miocic in the UFC 309 main event from Madison Square Garden in New York. While Jones has continuously scoffed at a potential fight against Aspinall — going as far as calling him an “assh*le” that he didn’t want to do business with — he was very open to a fight against Pereira as the current UFC light heavyweight champion.
Initially, White stated that if Jones gets through Miocic and wants to fight again, his only option is Aspinall but he’s willing to throw a little sweetener on that offer now.
“If he beats Tom Aspinall then yes, I would do the Alex Pereira fight,” White told The Pat McAfee Show on Friday.
White addressed Jones’ potential future with a lot of questions swirling about whether or not he’ll retire after facing Miocic or possibly returning to compete again. Jones said during fight week that he had no interest whatsoever in Aspinall but a matchup against another two-division champion like Pereira would likely keep him around for at least one more fight.
In response, White said that Jones has to face Aspinall first because he’s the interim heavyweight champion and he deserves the opportunity to unify those titles.
The fight also gives Aspinall the same kind of chance to become a champion just like Jones was offered when he claimed the UFC light heavyweight title back in 2011 with a dominant, third-round stoppage over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
“Obviously a guy like Jon Jones had a career that if he wants something, we would do it but you can’t just want to do a ‘fun fight’ and not want to fight the interim heavyweight champion,” White said. “The guy who’s next.
“Because if Jon Jones retired on Saturday, Tom Aspinall would be the heavyweight champion. So opportunities were given to Jon Jones. He was 23, he was the youngest [UFC] champion of all time. Now he sits where he sits, it’s his obligation to give it to the younger guy, to give him that opportunity.”
Aspinall actually weighed in as the backup for the UFC 309 main event, although he remained skeptical about Jones or Miocic actually facing him if one of them was unable to compete on Saturday.
By all accounts, Jones and Miocic are ready to go for the main event with Aspinall expected to sit cage side to take in all the action with hopes that he can lure the winner into a fight.