him that he's going to retire and that he's not living like an athlete um who's fighting at the top level anymore and that he's not interested and he's not in the gym and etc. But I knew that there was going to be a decision made by the UFC coming soon. There's no way on earth that he's going to fight me.
Not a chance. I will retire Jon Jones without even fighting. Jon Jones called us last night and retired.
Jon Jones is officially retired. Tom Aspenol is the heavyweight champion of the UFC. Thomas Espanel has finally spoken out and the MMA world is losing it.
Just days after officially retiring from the UFC, Jon Jones is now seemingly unretired, telling Dana White and the world that he's willing to fight again, but only if it's at the White House for the world. Jon Jones, the greatest fighter of all time, potentially possibly the guy that retired recently about two weeks ago because he didn't want to fight Tom Aspenol because he's been there, done it. He's living his best life.
He's got nothing more to prove. He walked away from the sport essentially undefeated. He has been retired for two weeks, maybe less than that.
That gets a bit blurry depending on what the timeline is. But according to Twitter, apparently according to Twitter, his Twitter, not general hearsay, Jon Jones has unretired. That is correct.
He says that he is now back in the testing pool. Check this out. So, of course, the UFC shares this, and this is very nice of the UFC.
John Bones Jones, the greatest of all time, and he just might be. He just might be. We'll get to that after.
There's others. Anderson Silva, George St. Pierre, Demetrius, Mighty Mouse Johnson, Hhabib Naga, Maidov, the list goes on.
Iliot Aoria, right? So, he shares that. Okay, great.
Of course, why not? I'd share that as well. I'd retweet it.
And then this fighting at the White House that piqued his curiosity. You might have saw Donald Trump is saying that they're going to do a a fight at the White House next year with 20 25,000 people. And I did a video on that and I was like, you know what?
Maybe that would be the fight for Jon Jones to come out of retirement. And then the very next tweet, there it is. Just re-entered the testing pool.
And at the time of me doing this, 4th of July, just about to start the barbecue. About to have a few beers. 37 minutes ago.
Just re-entered the testing pool that lasted for about 2 weeks. Figured we'd keep everyone's options open. Now, we'll have a look at the comments on that in just a second.
Um, I don't know what to think of this. I don't know if John's having a laugh, if he's being silly, if he's just taking the piss, or if he's actually serious. That's right.
After Donald Trump confirmed he wants to host a UFC event at the White House, Jones jumped on the news immediately and made it clear if the fight's happening there, he's allin. Day in a world, we're going to have a UFC fight. We're going to have a UFC fight.
Think of this on the grounds of the White House. We have a lot of land there. We're going to build a little We're not Dana's going to do it.
Dana is great. One of a kind. going to have a UFC fight, championship fight, full fight, like 20 25,000 people and we're going to do that as part of 250 also.
We're going to have some incredible events, some professional events, some amateur events, but the UFC fight's going to be a big deal, too. And and Tom Aspenol, he's had enough. In a recent interview, Tom called out the complete hypocrisy, saying, "It's ridiculous how Jones refused to fight for months, wasted the division's time, retired officially, and now suddenly wants to fight again.
" All because Trump's involved, and there's a flashy venue. According to Tom, this isn't just bizarre, it's disrespectful, not just to him, but to the entire heavyweight division. Managers in this sport have to keep their relationships with the UFC.
Yeah, and it's it's a real it's a real problem and there's many layers to this issue. Managers are afraid to back their fighters because of the repercussions on their relationships with the UFC. And it's all over the place.
They will serve the UFC before they serve their fighters as far as I'm concerned. But to see a guy with only one fighter and not have to worry about this at all and just be like, do you know what? This was [ __ ] You essentially just be like, "This is not cool.
I thought it was class. " Do we have uh some quotes there on our joint? I don't know if you put them up there.
Oh, here we go. Um, this is from the article up on Uncrowned. Um, and believe me, this is nothing to do with me if this is a good article.
I am just writing 50 words. Here's Andy. 50 words, here's Andy.
Uh, here it is. I can't think of a worse way he could have done it. This is the announcement of Tom as the new champion.
I don't know if pathetic is the word. I just feel they didn't think about it. I don't think Tom deserved to find out at a press conference in the middle of the night.
Yeah, he's got a point. It's poor man management of Jones and Tom. I like the personnel at the UFC, but for me, they just don't do things right sometimes.
I think he's Okay, go ahead. Sorry. And here it is on on Jones.
Like, I mean, this it just feels like he was knocking [ __ ] home run balls out of the park. Like everything that everyone felt, he's just like, "And here's this one. " As as soon as Jones got injured and said he needed a year off before he fought Stipe, he should have stepped aside then.
And what is now going to happen in your career going forward in the heavyweight division? All right. What are your feelings towards him?
Um, first of all, thanks for keeping it short because I I have said that I'm not going to speak about it anymore. Um, my feelings towards him, I just wish him all the best. Genuinely wish him all the best.
If he feels um satisfied with what he's done, which he's saying he is, and he's happy to leave like that, then I genuinely wish him all the best. Do you think that that is it? I don't know him.
Don't know him at all. Met him once. Don't know anything about him.
So, I don't know. So, it's short. It was short and sweet.
Thank you. No, you but you can understand that that has been quite a huge part of the narrative over the last course 12 months and a lot of fight fans will have their attitudes as to why that decision has been made and what have you. I I kind of agree with you.
At the end of the day, with the legacy that he's had and the what he's done in the sport, he has the right to make a decision for himself. Personally, as a fight fan, I just wish that he' done it a little bit earlier. So therefore, we wouldn't have had that narrative over the last 12 months because I can imagine it's been incredibly frustrating for you from a personal point of view and a professional point of view as well.
Yeah. I just wanted to um I mean, I feel like a broken record keeping up, but all I wanted to do was fight. I just wanted to fight.
I've stopped I've not been to work mate for nearly a year. I know people see me online and doing all the rest of it, but my my main job is is fighting people. That's what I do.
I've not done that for almost a year, and none of it has has had anything to do with me. Right. Perfect.
This is where I want to go with because I think a lot of people have have a have an understanding of you. I'd like to say that obviously we spent a bit of time, so I kind of like to get inside your head a little bit more and pick the little things that go on inside. How have you dealt with that?
Because I remember speaking to you during the time that you were out injured with your knee. That was a tough challenge from a psychological point of view. Yeah.
This is different because when you're out with your knee, it's on me now. I'm going to get fit. I'm going to get me knee back and we're going to get rocking and rolling.
The last 12 months hasn't been kind of on you. So, how was that a different mental challenge? this and I can say this now that it's over because the thing with me when I'm in difficult situations I try not to complain about it as much that this last year has been more difficult than the year I had out with the nation in November uh John returns to fight Stipe in that highly anticipated fight Stipe one of the greatest of all time obviously uh a decorated champion who had not fought in several years full-time firefighter at that point here he is talking to Kevin Ioli on his great platform uh about the prospect of fighting Tom Aspenol.
Tom Aspenol is the guy that people want to see you fight, right? So here's the question. You're fighting Stipe Mitchic and I know you're focused on that fight.
If you defeat him as your a six to1 favorite to win the fight. If you defeat him, will you defend your belt against Aspenol who has the interim title? More than likely not.
More than likely not. I feel like Tom Easol is uh I don't want to say nobody, but um he just hasn't proven anything. He hasn't done anything.
And I and I I understand that. I mean, he won his belt against Sergey. Sergey just got slaughtered by someone else.
So, it's just like I'm not here to uh to to gamble someone else making a name off of me at that point. By the way, uh Tom had had won his UFC debut. He beat Jake Collier via a 45se secondond knockout.
He then beat Alan Badau in a minute and 35 seconds via TKO. He submitted Andre Arloski, John's good friend, in the second round, a minute and 9 seconds. Uh he uh he TKO'ed Sergey Spievac.
He submitted Alexander Volkov. He blew out his knee against Curtis Blades. Came back a year later and TKO'ed Marcine Tyura in a minute and 13 seconds.
He knocked out Sergey Pavlovich in 69 seconds. That's what Tom, the quote unquote nobody uh had done up until that point. Pretty much beat everyone that he could have other than the top dog who who you know clearly did not want to fight him.
So now he's ready. Not when I was calling for it. Not when the fans were calling for it.
But now it's at the White House and he wants the cameras. Come on. That was the tone Tom gave off loud and clear.
But the fans, they're split. Some are saying this is classic Jon Jones, always waiting for the perfect spotlight before stepping back in. Others believe it's just more trolling and that Jones never actually planned to stay retired for long.
And here's where it gets even wilder. The UFC might actually be considering it. With Trump's announcement catching fire, Dana White hasn't shut down the idea.
In fact, there are rumors of active discussions behind the scenes. And if this becomes real, Tom versus Jones at the White House might go down as the biggest freak show or legacy fight in MMA history. But let's not ignore the real story here.
Tom Aspenol's frustration is very real. He's been the interim champ. He's done everything the UFC's asked.
He's stayed active, stayed respectful, and trained relentlessly. And now that Jones wants to jump back in on his terms, it's like Tom's been left holding the bag again. I mean, what has changed in two weeks time?
Of course, Trump talking about a fight at the White House. We're going to have a UFC fight. Think of this on the grounds of the White House.
Yeah. Okay. Maybe that maybe that's it.
I don't think it is that. I do think that he would want to fight at the White House and I'm sure that every single fighter is going to want to do that. A lot of them are raising their hands.
Conor McGregor has put his hand up. Michael Chandler's interested. Sean Strickland's definitely going to want to be there.
Mr 177, of course, him versus Tom Aspenol. England versus USA 1776 all over again at the White House. Unbelievable.
Of course, that should be top of the bill, right? But is that really what's going on? Is it just the fact that they're going to do a fight at the White House or has something else changed?
The fact that he's re-entered the testing pool means he's not messing around. Okay, now let's have a look. Let's have a look at the the Twitter responses because you never know, maybe there's a bit of [ __ ] going on here.
I'm finding this out just as you are if you're seeing this for the first time. Guess you'll guess who will be waiting for you if you decide to come back. Hello, John.
Of course, there's Tom Aspenol. Sir, this event is for real fighters. See, that's what what we're talking about.
The legacy will be a little bit tainted uh because everyone thinks that he was avoiding Jon Jones with Jon in the White House only makes sense. No other American champions right now. Well, that is a good point.
I talked about that in the other video as well. Um, there isn't any American champions right now other than Jon Jones. Well, Jon Jones has retired.
Tom Aspenol is the undisputed champion. And Tom Aspenol, to be honest, is absolutely sick of all this. He's just happy that everything is now moved on.
Tom Aspenol has a new opponent and a location. Apparently, it's going to get announced soon. Like the guy I'm fighting next is the most dangerous guy that I'm ever going to have to fight.
Got to think that Sirill gone. God knows where it's going to be. more than likely um Las Vegas somewhere in America anyway.
It ain't going to be in France. It ain't going to be in the UK. Tom's last pay-per-view was in the UK in the middle of the night.
It's going to be in America on prime time. That's for damn sure. Probably Siril Gone.
Now, the big question is is why is he doing this? If we take it at face value and we say that John Jones is serious. Okay.
What has changed? I don't think that in two weeks time all the fan backlash because there's a lot of people that support him and of course he just shared a post from the UFC and there's a lot of people in you know old school fans that still very very much support Jon Jones and still look at his legacy as the person that was one of the greatest to ever do it. That's without a shadow of a doubt that beat generations of champions.
Um, but there's a lot of people that are talking. I don't think it's people talking online that's going to influence him to come out of retirement as just a a fighter here. If it was if it was so public for me personally, I don't know if my ego could take it having not done it.
Um, but that's that's honestly that's his prerogative. I don't hold any ill will against him for it. And I'm I'm happy to move on with my career now that it's over because you got to remember I've not fought for nearly a year now because of this.
So I'm glad that that is behind us now. Do you in part I guess take this as a bit of a compliment that there was such huge public pressure for him to fight you and actually the route that he chose was to retire instead of fighting you. I mean that's quite a compliment for someone of Jon Jones stature.
Uh, I I try not to let my ego take control of me. Um, I could see why people would think that, but to me it's just like maybe when I've retired I'll cons when I've retired myself, which is not going to happen in the next couple of years at least. Um, I'll think about that kind of stuff.
But will the UFC finally let Tom run the division or are they seriously entertaining Jon Jones hijacking this whole thing once more? And Jon had been telling us for quite some time, I already told the UFC my plans. I'm not sure why they haven't done anything with it, but it seems as though as he continued to try and hint at what his plans were, the UFC felt like their hand was forced and they had to put it out there because at this point, what are we waiting for?
Now, Tom Aspenol is coming to Las Vegas this week. He will be there back end of the week. He was told that a decision would be made by International Fight Week.
Why I think this is ludicrous that it all went down like this was we had waited so long for the resolution to this issue. Could they have not done something in Las Vegas in front of all the fans before the press conference after the press conference before the weigh-ins after the weigh-ins in the middle of the card on Saturday before the fight after the fight presenting Tom with the belt saying you are the man. This is the glamour division.
You are the baddest man on the planet. You're the heavyweight champion. You've done it all right.
everything we've asked of you. Why not do it like that? He's literally going to be there in a couple of days where where where every media member, every fan is going to be there.
You do it like this in a throwaway midway through a press conference in Bakiseran in the middle of the night over there when no one's paying attention. You do it like that. What is that?
When you're an interim champion, they only make an interim champion when the champion cannot defend the belt. So for Jon Jones, he couldn't defend a belt cuz he tore his pec muscle. So the interim champion means he should be fighting the champion right off the bat.
That's not the case with Jon Jones, right? Cuz Jon Jones is going to fight stupid. So the interim champion is supposed to sit there and wait.
But by law and like the regulations, once Jon Jones steps in the cage, he is stripped of his interim champion because the champion has returned. There is no longer for interim champion. What is the point of having interim champion when the champion is ready to fight?
This is the only sport in the world you can have somebody hold your career back. Yeah, I've been almost a year inactive with no prospects of anything. Just be ready and uh we'll just let you know.
Yeah. And then it's kind of difficult like mentally to Oh, yeah. This is the fight against Jon Jones.
Like not the fight is another thing. Yeah. This is is the tricky bit where I really have to stay switched on, stay motivated, and uh I'm trying my best.
I'm trying. It's tough. As you said a minute ago, no one really knows what's going on behind the scenes apart from me.
Exactly. You're you're an office cooking. I train all the time anyway.
Just cuz I've not got a fight doesn't mean I don't train. Like I I honestly can see John's point of view. I get it.
I get it. It's just about the title for me. Yep.
I just want the title. That's it. Yep.
Does nothing else really matters. So you're like, "Let me do my thing. Let me fight.
I just want to fight. " And I think that's the respectable way to go about it. It's like, you don't care if it's John.
And it's no disrespect to John. It's no disrespect to anybody out there. You're just trying to fight.
I just want to fight. Yep. Nah, man.
John's retired. What are we talking about, guys? This is uh John.
You guys don't follow John on social media? I don't follow him on social media. He said that No, me too, actually.
Me, too. But the guy the guy is living his best life. He He's had a fantastic career.
We all know. Um we know John's a religious man. So, I want to say God bless him moving forward in what he does with his life and his career.
And um no, we we move on. we move on. I, you know, I'm the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
I'm ready to take on all comers, get this division moving again. We, those guys have been waiting around to too long. You know, the guys, the contenders are getting sick of it.
Everybody's getting sick of it. Even the fans are getting sick of this stuff. So, John's retired and it's time that we move on.
retired Jon Jones, just as they predicted Tom Aspenol over a year ago, I think, said, "I will retire this man without even having to fight him. He's never going to fight me. " And despite all the uming and aaring and all the [ __ ] pretending that he was going to actually ever get in the cage with Tomas Fenol, Jon Jones has done what we always knew he was going to do.
He's tuck tail and ran. Imagine calling yourself a goat and yet behaving like such a duck. I mean, this is like back in the playground.
Jon Jones has got got a bike. Tom Aspenol's come over and goes, "Give us your bike. " Now, what you have to do then is fight.
You have to defend what your [ __ ] is and say, "No, you're not going to take this. " And you know what Jon Jones did? You have it.
I don't want to fight. You can have it. This is unbelievable.
The greatest of all time. What a load of [ __ ] I'm sorry. Never never going to call that him the go ever ever ever again.
Because being the greatest of all time is not just about winning. And that's what Jon Jones doesn't understand. It's about how you conduct yourself throughout the whole of your career.
Are you willing to fight the biggest challenges, the biggest tests, go in there and test yourself against everyone? And Jon Jones proved without a shadow of a doubt his biggest test stepped up and he bottled it well and truly. Remember this clip from like over a year ago when John actually met Tom in person?
Respect, man. All the best. Respect.
All the best. Do a quick picture. Sure.
Yeah, let's get it. A face off. Just No.
Okay. He wouldn't even face off with Tom Aspenol, let alone get in a cage with him. And after all of the fanning around and waiting for Jon Jones to man up and strap his balls on and defend his heavyweight title because you've never really earned it.
You beat a guy who wasn't even the champion. You beat Oh my god, what a force that fight was. Because make no mistake, the MMA community is watching and everyone knows that this division has been on pause long enough.
If Jon's really back, then step in and sign the contract. If not, let Tom Aspenol build his legacy without the circus.
