It’s nigh on impossible not to think about Jon Jones while discussing the greatest fighter of all time in the UFC. After all, he has remained a champion since he beat Mauricio Rua at UFC 128. Of course, we can ignore the hiatus before he came back to dominate as a heavyweight. But his legacy has come under severe scrutiny as he kept distancing himself from a fight against Tom Aspinall. He even got ready to vacate his championship title if he had to, but refused to fight Aspinall. And that made the fighting community doubt his stance as the GOAT of MMA. 

Nevertheless, Jones still had quite a number of supporters on social media. One of them decided to highlight the heavyweight champion as the GOAT in a reply to ‘Bones’ promoting Mike Perry’s Dirty Boxing 2 on his X profile. The fan from Botswana claimed that people who don’t even know how to strap a glove can’t really change the things he has done for the sport. Needless to say, Jones has indeed inspired an immeasurable number of aspirants to continue fighting. 

And the heavyweight champion was utterly pleased with it all. In a reply to the fan, he wrote, “Wow, thank you so much for the kind words, my brother. To me, inspiring people around the world is the highest compliment you could give a guy like me. Being called the GOAT is unbelievable, no doubt but the real measure of a man, at least in my eyes, is how many lives he impacts along the way. So thank you for giving me what I consider the highest honor.”

But trouble never really left Jones’ side, as a few other fans swooped in with arguments about the interim heavyweight champion. It has been a long time since Aspinall has been calling Jones out. He even had to defend the interim title while ‘Bones’ fought only twice in the last 832 days. The fan removed Jones from the GOAT discussion till he fought Aspinall. But the Rochester native wasn’t going to get subdued this easily. He replied, “As you stand there waving your magic wand lol.”

On the other hand, one fan claimed that Jones was actually a troll. And not just any troll, he claimed him to be the best one in the sport. Nevertheless, the fan admitted that he actually loved Jon Jones. Seemingly confused by the comment, the 2-division champion wrote, “I’ve never claimed to be the best but somehow, I keep ending up with my hand raised. Jones haters frustrated these days.”

Jones definitely wants to go down as one of the greatest ever. But as the rallies for him going against Aspinall went on rising, he had to take to X and reveal that he had already talked to the UFC regarding his plans. The thing that made him curious was the fact that the UFC hadn’t really revealed anything regarding Jones’ plans. But does it really align with the fans’ demand of Jones vs. Aspinall? 

Well, some of the talks even point to Jones retiring before a fight with the Brit. Now, one might wonder whether Jones ducking Aspinall and retiring means he is quitting. But it seems like Daniel Cormier has an answer to that.

Daniel Cormier doubles down on Jon Jones’ retirement rumors as he seemingly keeps avoiding Tom Aspinall

Taking to his YouTube channel, the UFC color commentator asserted that the right thing for Jones was to fight Aspinall. He addressed his former opponent and said, “If you beat him, which is a real thing, and a real likely scenario, you can then stick it to everyone like you’ve done on so many occasions and tell ’em about it. Nothing feels better to a guy like Jon Jones to be able to beat the guy that you thought was going to get him, and then him going, ‘What did I say to you?’ It’s sweeter than any title or anything else you can give this man, but he’s gotta be willing to take that chance to go and fight this dude.”

But as far as the retirement talks are concerned, DC doesn’t believe that Jones gets to retire right away. The reason? He claimed, “Jon Jones will get to retire from fighting, but if he doesn’t fight this guy, then that’s just him quitting. There’s one real fight for him and he’s not so old and washed up that he can’t take it.”

For the unversed, Dana White has already shown a boatload of interest in making the fight between Jones and Aspinall happen. Even Jones was previously ready to fight the battle to unify the heavyweight belts. But now, things have taken a different turn. The heavyweight champion reportedly asked for a 180-day break. But then again, it’s all a pretty messy situation for the champ. 

According to you, who should be crowned as the GOAT of MMA? Can Jones really solidify his position as the greatest MMA fighter of all time by defeating Aspinall? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.