Tom Aspinall has just broken a record without meaning to do so! Thanks to Jon Jones stalling the heavyweight title unification bout, the Brit broke the record set by former bantamweight champion Renan Barao for the longest reigning interim champion of all time by holding the interim heavyweight title for 535 days and counting. He has even clocked in one title defense of his interim championship. The 31-year-old, however, has received nothing but radio-silence from the heavyweight champion. MMA veterans Chael Sonnen and Daniel Cormier wondered whether the UFC would ever think of stripping Jones of his title.
In the recent Good Guy/Bad Guy podcast, Sonnen said, “We have belts for two reasons—one, to establish who’s the best, and two, to be defended. We do not put belts around anybody that we do not believe is going to go and defend them. So, should I reasonably believe that the interim title is going to be defended?”
He further added that if Aspinall does fight Jones, the interim title is not on the line; only Jones’ belt is on the line. Sonnen was disappointed that there was no conversation being had about this, and the possibility of the fight only seems to be getting smaller and smaller.
Cormier chimed in and said, “That’s crazy, it is crazy because I’ve never thought about that. It was big when Jon beat Stipe. It was all anyone could talk about him, right now, it just feels like we’re further away from it than it’s ever been. And I don’t quite understand why it is starting to go in the wrong direction. Should he get stripped? I don’t know, man, because if he didn’t get stripped from March 23 to November 24, why would you do it now?”
He further added, “It’s been six months. It’s only been six months. The first time was 18 months from him winning that belt to defending that belt. And he did not get stripped. So why would they strip him today, right?” The former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion was pretty angry when former UFC welterweight Ben Askren said that Islam Makhachev should be stripped of his belt since he does not want to fight Ilia Topuria.
Madison Square Garden NEW YORK CITY, NY -NOVEMBER 16:Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic meet in the octagon for a 3-round bout for UFC309 – Jones vs Miocic at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City, NY Photo by Louis Grasse/PxImages Louis Grasse / SPP PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxBRAxMEX Copyright: xLouisxGrassex/xSPPx spp-en-LoGr-lrg2411164283824_UFCVegas309
In that sense, ‘DC’ pointed out that even Jones should have been stripped of his heavyweight belt. But he wasn’t, even though ‘Bones’ did not fight for 6 months due to injury. On the other hand, as per Sonnen, Jiri Prochazka’s belt was stripped in just 7 days. But why? He had a serious shoulder injury before his rematch with Glover Teixeira.
However, in reality, Prochazka himself decided to vacate the belt in 2022 after realizing that the recovery time for his injury would be too long, but UFC never stripped him of his title. But even Jones was injured, right? Yet neither did he vacate his belt or UFC strip him of his title. DC and Sonnen’s agitation is legit in this case, then.
Daniel Cormier was agitated at what Ben Askren said about Islam Makhachev
Makhachev is the lightweight king right now with several top dogs wanting to fight him for the belt. Ilia Topuria, on the other hand, just won his featherweight belt and decided to vacate the same for the lightweight throne. However, the Dagestani is not interested in fighting another featherweight-turned-lightweight and Ben Askren immediately decided to take a jibe on Makhachev because of this.
“I think Dana (White) should just do Dana stuff and just say, ‘Hey, Islam, if you don’t want to fight, you’re stripped,’” Askren expressed on his Funky and the Champ show with Cormier. However, DC did not have any of this blame on Makhachev. On the Good Guy/Bad Guy podcast, both ‘DC’ and Sonnen questioned why everyone was blaming Makhachev when Jon Jones had defended his championship just once.
In the past two years, the Dagestani has fought four times—this is the true sign of an active fighter. And Jones? He has been on the sidelines without any answers about his next fight. Sonnen said, “He has fought in the last two years. He fought Volk. He fought Dustin. He fought Volk again. He fought against Moicano. He fought them all. He fought four times in the amount of time that the heavyweight champion fought once.”
Cormier chimed in, “But you know what’s annoying to me is that Islam Makhachev has said, I don’t want to fight Ilia Topuria because he’s a 45-pounder, and I’ve done that. Give me somebody else. People are like, take the belt off of him.”
The fight was supposed to be a mega event with two top dogs and one championship belt. Unfortunately, the fire is dimming day by day. So now what? What is going to happen to this matchup? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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