MMA journalist Luke Thomas has hit out at the UFC and Jon Jones for not fighting Tom Aspinall.
Jon Jones is set to defend his UFC heavyweight championship against Stipe Miocic this weekend. Of course, while the fight itself is a big story, many are hanging on the fact that Jones refuses to compete against interim champion Tom Aspinall.
As we know, Jon Jones is widely considered to be the greatest fighter of all time. With that being said, many have questioned whether or not his refusal to fight Aspinall will hurt his legacy.
In a recent video, MMA journalist Luke Thomas broke down the issue in a really interesting way.
Luke Thomas rips Jon Jones’ situation
“If you can’t make a fight between the two most deserving guys in the division—the champion and the interim champion—then the whole system is meaningless.”
“Jon is clearly avoiding Tom. He doesn’t want to fight the guy who’s the most deserving contender, the one with the belt, the one who has been on a tear.
“We have an interim champion who’s been active and is now the most deserving contender. If Jon Jones refuses to fight him and instead fights someone less deserving, what does that say about the integrity of the sport?
“This is about as textbook a case as ducking gets. This is it. Ducking—the avoidance of a difficult challenge for an easier one—which is exactly what this is. And it’s actually worse than that. This is ducking on a whole different level.
“If Jones avoids Aspinall, we might have a new gold standard for ducking in UFC history,”
“Why do we have a ranking system and belts if they don’t actually matter?”
“If we’re going to make exceptions for fights just because a champion doesn’t want to face a tough challenge, what’s the point of the system? Why even have it?
“The most intriguing fight is Jon versus Tom, the title unification. It’s the clash of generations, and you can’t get more meaningful than that. The idea that you’d rather see Jon fight Poatan just because he’s more popular is insane. This is a sport built on competition, not on picking fights you can win easily.”