White Gives Jones Vs. Aspinall ‘100%’ Guarantee

White is so sure he can get Jon Jones to face Tom Aspinall that he gave a one hundred percent guarantee he’d deliver the fight. We’re less convinced.

Dana White is giving you his guarantee that we’re going to get a much-hyped but heavily hypothetical Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall title unification bout.

The heavyweight champ Jones spent the bulk of UFC 309 fight week saying over and over again that he had no interest in fighting interim champ Aspinall. At the same time, UFC CEO Dana White spent just as much time if not more reassuring everyone the bout would happen. And those duties carried on to the UFC Tampa post-fight press conference where he promised he’d get it done.

“Yeah, I’ll say one hundred percent [guaranteed],” he said of the fight.

“I think it’s probably the biggest fight in heavyweight history, and it’s a massive in the history of the company, too,” he said of Jones vs. Aspinall. “It’s a big fight.”

Jones vs. Aspinall is the fight fans want to see but Jones believes it’s just another example of UFC wanting him to fight ‘the next guy.’ He’d rather fight Alex Pereira, which is both less competitive and more lucrative. That’s probably why White keeps on repeating how Jones vs. Aspinall is the real big massive pay-per-view event. If Jon wants ‘f— you’ money to fight Aspinall, it will have to come off the back of PPV sales.

But don’t worry your little head about the backroom wheelings and dealings of the UFC and Jon Jones. White says Jones isn’t the type to shy away from challenges. For the most part.

“What’s weird about that, let me tell you what’s weird about that,” White said of Jones’ very verbal refusal to fight Aspinall. “So usually those guys say that s— behind the scenes and not publicly. Jon says that s— publicly, but not behind the scenes. Jon is a very unique individual to deal with. From day one, I’ve been confident that Jon Jones would do that fight. I mean even before the fight, I said if he won, there’s no way Jon doesn’t do this fight. Jon Jones isn’t afraid to fight anybody, and that’s a fact.”

“The only time that anything remotely weird has ever happened with Jon Jones was the time that his f—ing camp did the weird Chael Sonnen thing. ‘We can’t fight Chael Sonnen on short notice.’ And that wasn’t him. That was his team, and he listened to his team for whatever reason. But that’s like the goofiest f—ing move in the history of the UFC.”

“But other than that, Jon Jones behind the scenes is not a guy that turns down fights.”

We’re not so sure we’d agree with that assessment. After Jones won a controversial decision over Dominick Reyes at UFC 247, he declared he had no interest in a rematch and called out Jan Blachowicz instead. The UFC insisted on Reyes or heavyweight. Jones chose heavyweight, but UFC refused to give him a raise for the move. A month later, he relinquished the light heavyweight title and disappeared from competition for three years.

I don’t know if that technically qualifies as turning down a fight behind the scene, but the end result for the fans was no Jones fights at all for years. Now we’re supposed to be confident that UFC will get Jones vs. Aspinall done while ignoring the very clear and unambiguous statements “Bones” has been making for the past twelve months?

I dunno, man. This 100% guarantee feels a little less than 100%.