Michael Bisping is not a fan of UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones’ mentality.
Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) retained his heavyweight title with a Round 3 TKO of Stipe Miocic in Saturday’s UFC 309 main event. He continued to dismiss interim heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall and said he’d only continue fighting if he was matched up with light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira.
Jones did later say that he’d need “f*ck you” money to fight Aspinall, but Bisping has an issue with “Bones” going after an easier stylistic matchup. He compared his approach to Jake Paul, who’s coming off a unanimous decision win over 58-year-old Mike Tyson this past Friday in their Netflix headliner.
“My only issue is as a man, as a fighter, is him saying he doesn’t have this obligation to fight these young up-and-coming, hungry, dangerous guys that have an ability to beat him,” Bisping said on his “Believe You Me” podcast. “I don’t get that. That’s what my problem is with Jake Paul.
“Fighting guys that (Jones) knows he can beat – Alex Pereira, he has a very blatantly obvious path to victory. He just took down Stipe. He took down Ciryl Gane. He will take down Alex Pereira. Would he be able to take down Tom? That’s the question. That’s the fight. That’s what we want to see.”
Bisping liked what he saw out of Jones in his performance against Miocic, where he was able to land a big takedown in Round 1 and some brutal ground and pound. Jones then showed off the diversity in his striking by finishing Miocic with a spinning back kick to the body.
“The version of Jon Jones that we saw Saturday night – I’ve always said I think Tom would beat Jon,” Bisping said. “But when I was watching this Saturday night, I was like, ‘Jon looks big. Jon looks fast. Jon looks like he’s got the ability to go five rounds if he wants to or he needs to.’ I believe Jon would give him some problems. I believe that is a real fight that the world wants to see.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.
