Written by Daniel Cormier doesn’t see much use in making Tom Aspinall the official backup for UFC 309.
It’s not that he thinks an injury or last-minute withdrawal from Jon Jones or Spite Miocic isn’t possible. Cormier just thinks if something were to happen to either guy, neither Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) nor Miocic (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) will be willing to fight the UFC interim heavyweight champion on short notice.
“Aspinall is officially the backup fighter, but what happens if somebody gets hurt?” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Which one of those dudes is going to say, ‘OK, I’ll fight Tom Aspinall,’? Which one will actually stay in the fight?
“Pavlovich was the backup fighter in New York City when Jones and Stipe were scheduled to fight the first time. Jones got hurt, Stipe pulled out, and Aspinall fought against Pavlovich. There’s no guarantee that, because he’s the backup fighter, someone is going to fight him. I would almost guess that if someone gets hurt, Tom Aspinall stays on the card, and he fights neither one of those guys. … Neither one of those guys is fighting Tom Aspinall if they don’t have to.”
Cormier hopes he’s wrong. He wants to see Jones fight Aspinall eventually. After all, Jones is the UFC heavyweight champion and Aspinall the interim. He believes that’s the only fight Jones needs for his legacy and to claim being the No. 1 heavyweight today.
“Hearing Jones say, or hearing the rumor that Jones said ‘this is it for me,’ it sucks because I do believe that there’s some work to be done with Aspinall, mainly,” Cormier said. “I don’t think anyone else warrants him sticking around. I really don’t. We saw what he did to Ciryl Gane.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.