Jon Jones makes a retirement U-turn but says Tom Aspinall can’t do anything “irritating” to make the fight happen

And it seems he is now open to the idea of ​​staying in the sport. However, that isn’t necessarily good news for Tom Aspinall, who he described as “annoying” and insisted he would not fight under any circumstances despite his status as interim champion.

Jon Jones has regularly claimed that he will retire after UFC 309

Throughout most of the build-up to his fight with fellow legend Miocic, Jon Jones has insisted he will not fight again after this month’s showdown. His coaches have shared this opinion and believe that more than a decade and a half is enough time to call it a day.

At the age of 37, Jones has already established himself as arguably the greatest fighter of all time, winning heavyweight and light heavyweight world titles and breaking records. And he’s desperate to retire without letting anyone else make a name for himself.

He told Clocked N’ Loaded at UFC 306 that his next appearance would likely be the last time we would see him in the cage. Jones said: “I feel great, I feel really, really good, 250 pounds lean and strong. This will be the last time. Most likely.”

Now Jon Jones insists he is open to future fights

But in an interesting turn of events, he has now admitted that he would be willing to consider offers for another title defense after the match against Miocic. It will be the first time he has defended the heavyweight title since winning the vacant belt against Ciryl Gane in March last year.

“I feel like it could be the last,” he told the New York Post about UFC 309. “But I’m also open to the fact that it won’t be the last. “I just have to approach it the way I do I’ve always done it, one fight at a time.

“When you’ve been playing this sport for so long, you feel like you have such a big target on your back. I learned that being in the future is just scary and that at the end of the day, no matter how big the competition is in the world, they can only ever compete against me.

“So I’m just taking it one fight at a time. “I’m going to focus on beating Stipe first, then the next guy comes along and I’m going to give him my undivided attention.”

Jon Jones says there is “nothing” Tom Aspinall can do to earn a fight

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean good news for Tom Aspinall in the role of interim champion. The Brit won the belt by defeating Sergei Pavlovich at The Garden last year when Miocic and Jones’ first meeting was cancelled, and he has even defended the belt against Curtis Blaydes.

But Jones isn’t interested, telling reporter Scott Fantana when asked what Aspinall can do to make him truly invested: “Really nothing.” I find him annoying and I’ve been here so long that he didn’t get it until not too long ago came to the UFC a long time ago.

“If he wanted to fight me he could have been here, it’s like ‘Where have you been all this time?’ Ultimately, he doesn’t have a truly outstanding legacy. I think the only player he beat is Andrei Arlovski, and Andrei was very old then.

“It’s just that he really doesn’t have anything that would tempt me. He reminds me of a number of other up-and-comers I’ve fought where it means nothing to my legacy, really nothing. If he keeps it up and gets close to my winning record, maybe I’ll be enticed to come back and check it out.

“But I highly doubt he will. But Alex Pereira is someone I’m interested in. He had great sagas with Israel Adesanya and he beat Jamahal Hill, that guy is a champion killer like me. Things like that tempt me.”

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