Michael Bisping sympathizes with Tom Aspinall, tells UFC champ Jon Jones to 'hurry up or retire'
Michael Bisping thinks UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones needs to make a decision about his fighting future.
After finishing Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 this past November, Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) struggled to get up for a title-unification bout with interim champ Tom Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC), saying he needed “f*ck you” money to consider him over Alex Pereira.
But after Alex Pereira lost his light heavyweight title to Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313, Aspinall’s hopes of finally getting Jones fight may have increased. The Brit has already defended his interim title with a TKO of Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in July.
“Not that Tom wants any sympathy from me, but I really feel for the guy,” Bisping said in an interview with talkSPORT. “He’s in the prime of his life. He should be fighting regularly. He’s in the gym every day. He’s very humble. He is the interim champion of the world. He’s defended the interim championship status. The heavyweight champion of the world fought in November. Why they haven’t made this matchup is beyond me.”
MMA reporter Ariel Helwani claimed Jones is asking for a six-month training camp to fight Aspinall, which would delay their potential fight to the end of the year. Considering Aspinall is on the verge of breaking Renan Barao’s record for longest-reigning interim UFC champion, Bisping can’t fathom the delay.
“Jones has had an incredible career,” Bisping said. “You only need two months for a fight camp. I don’t understand that at all. I, for the life of me, don’t understand why this fight isn’t being made, and if they don’t announce it soon, then they’re really going to talk about stripping this guy. Simply, I mean, any other sport, if this was boxing, you would be stripped. If you don’t fight the mandatory challenger, you will be stripped. … It’s just madness.”
Bisping thinks a six-month training camp for Jones could jeopardize the fight ever happening.
“If Jon is going to train with some big heavyweights for six months, you’ve got a really good chance of getting injured and doing what he did last time,” Bisping said. “And if he was to have to pull out again, then there’s got to be some very, very serious decisions made, because otherwise – you could just fake an injury, couldn’t you? If you didn’t want the fight to happen – not that I’m saying (Jones) would; I’m not.
“I’m saying that at some point, you can’t keep doing that. Jon Jones wouldn’t do that. Jones is, you know, it’s easy to criticize the fact that the fight isn’t happening (yet). You can’t criticize what he’s done inside the octagon. You just can’t, and I know a lot of people think that he waited around for Francis Ngannou. I don’t necessarily buy that. He’s been an incredible champion, but he needs to hurry up with this fight, simple as that, or retire.”