Heading into UFC 309, heavyweight champion Jon Jones was hesitant to commit to competing beyond his title fight with Stipe Miocic. Coming out of UFC 309, Jones has sung a different tune, and that has UFC play-by-play commentator Jon Anik feeling quite optimistic about the matchup the masses are clamoring for.
And which matchup would that be? A title unification bout with interim champ Tom Aspinall, of course.
“I have no inside information. I truly don’t. You can call it informed speculation. … But I do believe that fight is going to happen, and I think what was most telling was just the way Jon Jones handled his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan,” Anik said in an interview with MMA Junkie Radio. “And then I talked to him after the fact in the back for ESPN, and I was like, ‘Are we getting three or four more of these things, or what?’ He was going into the Stipe fight with a fight-by-fight mentality, and he sounded like the furthest thing from retirement with Rogan after the fact. So that’s very encouraging.”
Before Jones dismantled Miocic for a third-round TKO win at UFC 309, he spent fight week having to explain why, if he didn’t retire, he preferred a showdown with light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira over Aspinall, but Anik doesn’t see that materializing.
“This is the fight,” Anik said. “Even though Jon Jones isn’t the natural heavyweight in body that Tom Aspinall is, he’s not going to fight Alex Pereira right now. He’s going to fight Tom Aspinall.”
As far as Anik is concerned, Jones vs. Aspinall is all but a lock to happen – provided Jones gets his wish in terms of compensation. What Jones wants exactly isn’t clear, although he described it as “f*ck you money” after UFC 309.
If negotiations between Jones and the UFC go well, then Anik expects the fight to take place during the biggest week on the calendar next year.
“It just comes down to what Jon Jones’ number is,” Anik said. “What is Jon Jones’ net worth? What number is he looking for? Is it 25 million (dollars) to show? You know, what is Michael Jordan worth? What is the greatest of all time worth? I feel like the company is in a great position to make this fight, and I think you’ve got to do Las Vegas. You’ve got to do International Fight Week 2025.”
