Despite claims earlier this week that he would happily vacate the heavyweight title after UFC 309, Jon Jones has been urged to fight current interim gold holder, Tom Aspinall if he beats Stipe Miocic, in order to solidifyJone his reign at the weight class according to ex-champion, Alexander Volkanovski.
Jones, a former two-time undisputed light heavyweight champion and former pound-for-pound number one rated fighter on the promotional books, will headline this weekend’s UFC 309 card in a title pairing with the returning, Miocic.
Winning the vacant heavyweight throne back in March of last year, Rochester native, Jones landed a dominant first round win over former interim champion, Ciryl Gane, landing a first round guillotine choke submission win.
And this week, ahead of his title fight with former champion, Miocic — Jones has claimed he would likely skirt a title unification pairing with Aspinall in the future, instead preferring to take on former two-division champion, Alex Pereira.
However, sharing his thoughts on the heavyweight debacle, former featherweight best, Volkanovski has questioned if Jones’ reign at heavyweight would be utterly legitimate if he decided to avoid a fight with Aspinall.
Volkanovski weighs in on Jon Jones, Tom Aspinall fight debacle
“If you want to be a heavyweight champion, you want to claim that crown,” Alexander Volkanovski said of Jon Jones on his YouTube channel. “It’s going to be hard to convince me you’re defending champ if you don’t fight Tom Aspinall while he’s the interim champ. Does Jon Jones even need to do this? No. He’s already got an incredible legacy. But if you want to claim the Heavyweight division, say you were a proper double champ — you gotta fight Tom Aspinall.”
“ … If you want that on your resume saying that I’m the best heavyweight while I was there, you have to fight Tom Aspinall,” Volkanovski explained. “I think he’s definitely the biggest threat, the wrestling, he can be dangerous everywhere, and he’s a legit Heavyweight.”