At this time last year, the stars seemed to have aligned perfectly for Jon Jones. After over a decade of dominance at light heavyweight, where he earned his GOAT credentials, he had moved up to heavyweight and become champ there, making short work of Ciryl Gane at their UFC 285 clash last March. Jones was gearing up for a legacy-defining fight against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 last year, whom many consider the heavyweight GOAT, after which he was expected to retire and ride off into the sunset as the greatest ever for most.

Things, however, took a dystopian turn for ‘Bones’, as he got injured, and Tom Aspinall became the interim champ and the darling of the fans. Now, as Jones is seemingly staring down the barrel of another serious injury, an insider thinks that this is the final nail in the coffin for Jones’ title run.

UFC veteran wants Dana White to strip Jon Jones

Former UFC heavyweight, Brendan Schaub felt that Jon Jones’ latest health scare had put UFC CEO Dana White in a very awkward position. Just last week, ‘Bones’ made the alarming claim in a now-deleted tweet that he had mutilated one of his fingers, writing that he had “Getting half my finger cut off at the Las Vegas airport.” This news, of course, means that Jones may not be able to fight this year either if the injury was indeed as severe as he had claimed.

Schaub, however, didn’t want to wait for any more information, seemingly having made up his mind about the fate of Jones’ title. The stand-up comic pointed out that the heavyweight champ fought over 500 days ago. Combined with the fact of Jones’ latest injury, the veteran felt the time was nigh for Dana White to strip Jones of the title regardless of his well-known personal fondness for ‘Bones.’

“You’re like ‘come on, dude’ For Jon, that’d be bad, he fought Ciryl Gane over 500 days ago. What do you do if you’re the UFC? You go to Stipe and be like ‘Hey listen, Jon got his finger cut off so he’s going to be out a little longer. You’re fighting Tommy Aspinall or just retire. You’d have to strip Jon. I get what he’s done, you’d have to strip and make Tom Aspinall the unified heavyweight champion of the world and you have Aspinall versus Alex [Pereira],” Schaub said on his ‘Thiccc Boy’ podcast.

What happens to Jones’ title will depend on the severity of the champ’s injury, about which Schaub was not very convinced.

Schaub thinks Bones is exaggerating injury

Despite Jones’ panicked tweets, the podcaster was skeptical about his finger injury. Schaub felt Jones may be exaggerating the extent of his injury. The fact remained that Jones was holding up the heavyweight division. To the chagrin of fans, it must be said, who almost unanimously want the heavyweight champ to fight interim champ Tom Aspinall instead of Miocic next, as the New Mexico resident is intent on doing.

“I think he’s exaggerating about getting half his finger cut off, let’s hope. But then also, let’s say his finger was gone and he couldn’t fight Stipe. What do you do… [If you’re the] UFC, like what do you do? You got Jon waiting, you know, just kind of holding up the division. You got Conor looming over there,” he said.

To predict what Dana White is likely to do, the most important piece of the puzzle is how bad is Jon Jones’ finger. If the heavyweight champ indeed cannot fight this year, that would be solid grounds for the UFC CEO to strip Jones. If, on the other hand, Jones can fight Miocic this year, as he was originally scheduled to do, then that wouldn’t change anything, including Dana White’s decision to let Jones keep the title.

What do you think Dana White should do? Drop your views in the comments below.