Jon Jones didn’t want the Tom Aspinall fight, says Jon Anik

UFC commentator Jon Anik has given his thoughts on the Jon Jones/Tom Aspinall ‘ducking’ controversy.

As we know, Jon Jones seems pretty set on competing on the UFC White Card next summer – perhaps even in the main event. With that being said, Jon has some work to do in order to receive such a placement. That includes apologizing to Dana White after ‘Bones’ recently admitted that he was in the wrong with how he approached the situation that ended with him retiring from mixed martial arts instead of fighting Tom Aspinall.

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As we know, Aspinall recently defended his UFC heavyweight championship against Ciryl Gane, with the fight ending in a no contest as a result of a double eye poke. This led to a great deal of criticism from the MMA community directed towards Tom which, unsurprisingly, Jones joined in on.

In a recent podcast, Jon Anik weighed in on the Jones/Aspinall ordeal and gave his own view on it.

Anik’s view on Jones/Aspinall situation

“He didn’t want the Tom Aspinall fight,” Anik said on his “Anik & Florian Podcast” with Kenny Florian. “There was legacy-preservation going on. He verbally agreed to a robust number, then went back on his word. He is apologizing and saying he was wrong.

“Even though I don’t see him as a natural heavyweight and I have a nature to see him to fight ‘Poatan,’ Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall, while it’s not Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson, for me, it’s the one that got away and that is a fight that I was more intrigued to see than Jon Jones vs. ‘Poatan,’ and I think I’m aligned with the big boss there.”

“Clearly Jon Jones wants the ‘Poatan’ fight. He wants it at the White House,” Anik said. “There are some rumblings maybe it wouldn’t be on President Trump’s birthday, June 14 I think it is, and it would be at some other point in time.

“Jon Jones would need the discipline to have a training camp and obviously the Alex Pereira training camp takes on an entirely different tone than a Tom Aspinall training camp, even if Jon believes Aspinall’s wrestling and grappling is overrated.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie