Michael Bisping’s thoughts on Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall have slightly changed.
‘The Count’ is a proud Englishman, who has been cheering on his compatriot during his incredible heavyweight run, which saw him KO Sergei Pavlovich to become interim champion in November 2023.
Last July, Tom Aspinall defended his belt by stopping Curtis Blaydes in 60 seconds when they rematched at UFC 304.
Dana White has now ‘100 percent’ guaranteed that a unification bout between his secondary champion and Jon Jones will take place at some point in 2025.
Michael Bisping predicts Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall
‘Bones’ has been open about his aversion to unifying the division in a fight with Aspinall.
The greatest of all time annoyed many people, including Michael Bisping, by publicly ducking the fight in the lead-up to his KO win over Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 in November.
Jones slightly eased his stance in the immediate aftermath of UFC 309, but he’s still demanding a monster pay packet to take on Aspinall in what would be the biggest fight of the year.
After initially predicting a one-sided clash in favor of his pal, the UFC Hall of Famer and former middleweight champion has had a change of heart on Jones vs Aspinall.
“I was kind of frustrated by the things Jon Jones was saying [during] fight week when he fought Stipe [Miocic],” Bisping said in an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow’s James Sweetnam.
“Now, looking back, I kind of agree. I think he played it like a genius because it made the desire and the demand for the fight even bigger – and along the way playing some mind games with Tom.
“I do believe that Tom would probably beat him in a fight, but the way he played it was to drive demand, and I think it worked. Dana White wants to put the fight on. Tom Aspinall said that Dana told him that it’s going to happen. I would guess that it goes down in 2025.
“When Tom won one of his fights in London, I did a post-fight show on TNT Sports and I was like, ‘Ah, Tom Aspinall would smoke Jon Jones, it wouldn’t even be a fight’.
“Maybe there was a little bit of recency bias there. It’s not because I admire Tom. It’s because when I look at him and I see the size, agility, and power he has, I’m not surprised he’s now the interim champion.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he beats Jon when they do fight. But seeing Jon Jones and seeing what he did against Stipe, it will be a tougher fight for Tom than I initially imagined.
“I’d still pick Tom to win… It’ll be an interesting fight. I just hope it happens.”
Joe Rogan suggests Jon Jones is contemplating retirement
Last week, Joe Rogan made headlines when he spread a rumor about Jones demanding $30million to fight Aspinall.
The legendary UFC commentator later retracted the claim after getting a call from Dana White.
While doing so, he inadvertently gave MMA fans a new nugget of information that suggested Jones may not fight Aspinall after all.
“Apparently Jon is thinking about retiring and he should. I mean, he’s going to have to someday,” Rogan said.
“I’m not saying he should retire but I’m saying he should think about it, give the man all the time he wants and he can fight whenever he wants to fight. That’s Jon Jones, he’s the GOAT. So leave him alone.
“If he decides one day to come back and he wants to come back and fight Tom Aspinall for the heavyweight title, the question is, like, how long are you allowed to hold on to the title before they start having that conversation?
“Now, he just knocked out Stipe Miocic so give the man months. Give the man five or six months, just leave him the f*** alone! But at a certain point in time you have to decide who the heavyweight champion is.
“So if Tom is the interim heavyweight champion and Jon decides he doesn’t want to fight any more he could do that. And he could do that also and then come back in a year and fight for the title, he can do whatever he wants.
“But he might decide ‘you know what? I’ve had an unbelievable career, never lost, except the DQ loss to a rule that has since been reversed. He’s the GOAT. he retires? He’s got plenty of money, he’s got an opportunity to do some acting, yeah.”
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