It seems that UFC fans did not forgive Jon Jones because he did not fight Tom Aspinall.
Jones retired in June as one of the largest MMA hunters who ever do it. Jones is one of the three UFC champions to keep belts in the light heavyweight and heavyweight departments and was the youngest champion in the promotional history at the age of 23, after he had since defeated generations of hunters.
Jones, 38, was retired under much fire without uniting the title against Tom Aspinall, who had been the interim champion for almost 600 days.
Jones made more fans angry when he decided to tease his return to the Octagon, just a few weeks after his pension announcement.
One UFC heavyweight has enough of Jon Jones.
Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
Curtis Blaydes starts to sing Jon Jones by accident on UFC 319
With Jon Jones as the heavyweight champion, the division was a bit silent when he chose to fight against a 42-year-old Stipe Miocic instead of the #1 Compendeder Aspinall.
Aspinall fought the #4 ranking order Curtis Blaydes in a rare interim title defense on UFC 304 last summer, while Jones met Miocic on UFC 309 on UFC 309 in November.
While Jones could come back, Blaydes is happy that the division has come from him for the time being.
“We're going further, we don't have to worry about Jon Jones,” said Blaydes on a UFC 319 Q&A (via Red Corner MMA).
After Blaydes had called Jones, the fans always sang 'F – Jon Jones'.
“I didn't want to start with this,” Blaydes responded to the songs.
“I mean, you can continue …” Blaydes added.
Curtis Blaydes makes prediction for UFC 321 Main Event
Blaydes is the only UFC hunter who can say they have a victory over Tom Aspinall.
Admittedly, the victory of Blaydes on Aspinall was due to a knee injury sustained by Aspinall in the first 15 seconds of the fight. Their Rematch took place differently at UFC 304, with Aspinall lifting his hand last year through the first round of TKO.
Aspinall is set to defend the undisputed title against Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 321 on October 25.
Blaydes did not fight Gane, but he called the rush on many occasions and wants to test his struggle, which has been his weakness in title fights against Jones and Francis Ngannou.
“I think Aspinall beats Gane,” predicted Blaydes on the Q&A panel.