DC supports stripping Jon Jones, Anthony Smith warns UFC against it

The UFC created an interesting conundrum this previous November. All set for a significant PPV headlined by heavyweight champion Jon Jones taking up former champ Stipe Miocic, a big harm to ‘Bones’ put the world’s largest MMA promotion in a bind.

In determined want of extra pomp and curiosity for an occasion that had misplaced its greatest attraction, the UFC booked an interim heavyweight title struggle between prime contenders Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich. Two males that neither Jones nor Miocic appear to have any curiosity in combating in any respect.

As a end result, the UFC now has an interim champ in Aspinall, who appears to haven’t any clear path to unifying the belts within the close to future, wanting expectations that Jones will simply retire after dealing with Miocic at International Fight Week 2024 and the UFC will make the required—however lackluster—transfer to advertise the Brit.

Daniel Cormier claims nobody would bat an eye fixed if Jon Jones obtained stripped

Given their years lengthy skilled (and at instances private) feud, maybe it’s no shock that former fellow two-division champion Daniel Cormier can be one of many main voices calling for Jon Jones to be stripped of the heavyweight title.

If the argument is that Jones vs. Miocic is the large struggle for the UFC to make and a bout that each males deserve, Cormier isn’t essentially against that reasoning. But, DC feels the struggle will likely be simply as huge and simply as significant whether or not a title is on the road or not.

I consider that this struggle — earlier than Sergei misplaced — was for the undisputed title, as a result of Jones and Stipe are solely going to struggle one another,” Cormier defined in a latest interview on The MMA Hour (transcript through MMA Fighting). “You cannot have Tom Aspinall defend the interim championship. Because Jones and Stipe don’t need the title to be on the line, they can just fight and that’s enough. Call it for the Greatest of All Time. It doesn’t matter, create a belt.”

“Tom Aspinall is the guy that’s going to lead the heavyweight division for years to come, so yes, I believe that he should be the undisputed champ. Jones is the undisputed champion. He earned that in the octagon by beating Ciryl Gane. But if he’s only going to fight Stipe, and that’s not for another, what, eight months, seven months? I think you put Tom Aspinall as the champ and I don’t think anyone would bat an eyelid.”

Anthony Smith feels Jon Jones deserves his flowers

Although his personal feud with Jon Jones lasted nowhere close to so long as Cormier’s (and was far, far much less aggressive), Anthony Smith has no further love for the longtime Jackson-Wink expertise. That mentioned, regardless of his private emotions about Jon Jones the particular person, Smith can’t assist however respect Jon Jones the fighter, and feels the UFC ought to too.

After all, to his mind-set, the promotion has an amazing struggle all set and made as soon as Jones is wholesome once more, why change something and danger messing it up?

“You all know how I feel about Jon Jones,” Smith mentioned throughout a media occasion for UFC Fight Night: Song vs. Gutierrez (transcript through MMA Junkie). “I hate when you guys ask me questions where I have to say nice things about him. Jon Jones can do whatever the f— he wants. Really. He’s earned that.”

“Do we really want to miss another super fight?” Smith continued. “How lengthy did we discuss Anderson Silva and GSP (St-Pierre)? Anderson and Jon Jones, and Khabib (Nurmagomedov) and whoever. We’ve achieved this back-and-forth, we wish all these tremendous fights and now now we have the chance for one and everybody’s calling for Jon to get stripped of his title.

“Let’s not f— this one up. Let’s just let him heal up. I know it makes absolutely no sense for there to be an interim champion and Jon to defend against someone who’s not, but we’re not like other sports. We can kind of change the rules sometimes and just give the fans and the people what they want.”

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Where does Dana White stand?

As for what the UFC goes to do? Dana White has proven completely zero inclination to see Jon Jones stripped of his belt.

“The Stipe fight has to happen,” White advised stories on the UFC Austin post-fight presser, when requested about stripping Jones of his belt (transcript through Forbes). “You know, both of those guys deserve it. Jon—you’ve got the greatest mixed martial artist of all time versus the greatest heavyweight of all time. And they’ve paid their dues. They’ve done the thing. These two wanna fight each other. It’s going to happen. Whoever wins, we’ll see what they decide to do after that, and we’ll go from there.”

It’s not an absolute stance on whether or not Jones ought to maintain the belt or not, from White, however all of White’s statements about Jones from the purpose his harm was introduced have pointed in the identical course. Jones goes to carry on to the belt till after this Miocic struggle. If he retires after that, then the UFC will take motion.

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About the writer

Zane Simon is a senior editor, author, and podcaster for Bloody Elbow. He has labored with the web site since 2013, taking up all kinds of roles. A lifelong fight sports activities fan, Zane has skilled off & on in each boxing and Muay Thai. He at the moment hosts the long-running MMA Vivisection podcast, which he took over from Nate Wilcox & Dallas Winston in 2015, in addition to the sixth Round podcast, began in 2014. Zane can be accountable for creating and sustaining the ‘List of current UFC fighters’ on Bloody Elbow, a useful resource he initially developed for Wikipedia in 2010.

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