Daniel Cormier believes Jon Jones nor Stipe Miocic will fight Tom Aspinall despite backup role: “Fighting each other and nobody else”

By Josh Evanoff - September 24, 2024

UFC commentator Daniel Cormier believes there’s no way Jon Jones or Stipe Miocic fight Tom Aspinall.

Michael Bisping, Tom Aspinall

‘Bones’ is finally set to return to the cage in November at UFC 309. In the main event, Jon Jones will look to make his first heavyweight title defense against Stipe Miocic. For his part, the challenger hasn’t competed since a knockout loss to Francis Ngannou in March 2021. Ahead of the contest, Dana White revealed that Tom Aspinall would be the backup fighter.

The British champion has continued to call for a fight against Jon Jones. However, he’s failed to get it. While White hopes to book the winner of the UFC 309 main event against Tom Aspinall, ‘Bones’ has stated his next bout will be his last. While Stipe Miocic has shown interest in facing the Brit afterward, some believe that the former champion will retire in November as well.

It appears that Daniel Cormier is in alignment with that idea. On his YouTube channel, ‘DC’ discussed the UFC 309 main event between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic, and Tom Aspinall’s backup role. There, Cormier opined that there’s no way that either heavyweight will face the interim champion on short notice.

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Daniel Cormier opens up on Tom Aspinall’s backup role ahead of UFC 309

Instead, Daniel Cormier believes that the UFC would likely have Tom Aspinall defend his interim title if anything happened to Jon Jones or Stipe Miocic. In the commentator’s view, there’s no way either man steps into the cage with the Brit. He added Jones and Miocic are back to fight each other and nobody else.

“Aspinall is officially the backup fighter, but what happens if someone gets hurt?” Daniel Cormier stated in the YouTube video discussing the UFC 309 main event. “Those dudes aren’t going to say ‘Okay, I’ll fight Tom Aspinall’. Which one of them will actually stand and fight? Come on. [Sergei] Pavlovich was the backup fighter in New York City when Jones and Stipe were booked to fight the first time. Jones got hurt, Stipe pulled out, and Aspinall fought against Pavlovich.”

He continued, “There’s no guarantee just because he’s the backup fighter that someone is going to fight him. I would almost guess that if someone gets hurt, Aspinall stays on the card. He’ll fight neither one of those guys. Yeah, neither one of those guys are fighting Tom Aspinall. They’ll have to do Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane or somebody for the interim championship. Those guys are fighting each other and nobody else.”

Do you agree with these comments from UFC commentator Daniel Cormier? Do you believe Jon Jones or Stipe Miocic will fight Tom Aspinall?