Curtis Blaydes have no hope that Jon Jones will unify the heavyweight championship with the winner of his UFC 304 co-main event vs. Tom Aspinall.
With Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) recovering from injury and awaiting his title defense against Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) on November 9th at Madison Square Garden in New York , the UFC has booked a rematch featuring eager interim champion Aspinall (14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) against Blaydes (18-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) on July 27 at Co-op Live in Manchester, England .
Under normal circumstances, the winner of Jones vs. Miocic would face the winner of Aspinall vs. Blaydes. It remains to be seen what Miocic would do with an upset win, but most expectations are for Jones to win and potentially retire. “Bones” joked that he would make the unification happen when he dubbed Aspinall vs. Blaydes as a fight for the No. 1 contender spot, but that’s far from a commitment.
Aspinall has made it clear he doesn’t think Jones will fight him and Blaydes is in the same boat.
“If I win or Aspinall wins, I don’t think Jon will fight anyone other than Stipe,” Blaydes told MMA Junkie on Friday. “After Stipe, he walks off into the sunset. I think he likes to throw out different scenarios like, ‘What if I fought Alex Pereira? What if I fought Aspinall? What if I fought Blaydes? He wants people to talk about him, which I understand. The more people talk about you, the better your following grows and this helps your sponsors. I understand. He is skilled at this. He’s been on the internet since I had Facebook and Instagram, he’s always been there. He knows what he’s doing. But do I honestly believe he would risk his legacy against a guy like me? No. Because if he beats me, what will that do for his legacy?
“You’ll be like, ‘Oh, that was the fight that finally cemented Jon as the GOAT.’ Either you believe he’s already the GOAT or you don’t. It’s like MJ vs. LeBron. If you still don’t believe LeBron is the GOAT, there’s nothing he can do to change your opinion and vice versa. If you already believe he is the GOAT. Regardless of how you view Jon Jones at this point or after he fights Stipe, this will be the lasting image. And I don’t think he’ll do anything to jeopardize that.”
Blaydes, 33, said he won’t “hold his breath” for a showdown with Jones to materialize, so in his mind, that raises the stakes for UFC 304. If Jones does indeed retire after Miocic, it would raise the stakes for UFC 304. Aspinall vs. “Blaydes winner from interim to undisputed champion”. In Blaydes’ mind, though, that’s essentially why he’s already competing.
“That’s how I see it (as an undisputed title fight),” Blaydes said. “That’s how I’m approaching it. When I told my family, my brothers, my father, my sister: ‘I’m fighting for a belt’. I didn’t say interim belt. I said a belt. Honestly, most casual fans don’t know the difference. I’m sure a lot of them are probably perplexed, like, ‘How come Aspinall has a belt and Jon has a belt?’ They probably don’t understand the concept of tentative versus indisputable and don’t care. All they see is a shiny belt and you holding it in the UFC Octagon. That’s all they need. So, for me, it’s the real belt.”
When predicting the future with winning the interim title, Blaydes believes that it will not be an easy process to obtain his undisputed status. His many years of observing Jones and his behavior lead Blaydes to think the heavyweight division is about to go through another rough patch, but eventually he thinks Jones will be removed or give up the belt.
“It will not be a smooth transition of power,” Blaydes said. “He’s not just going to – I know I said he’s going to walk off into the sunset, but I meant he’s going to ‘retire’ unofficially, but he’s not going to retire officially, who knows. It could be a year, a year and a half. No matter how long the UFC allows him to continue, he will do it.”
For more information on the card, visit the MMA Junkie events hub to UFC 304.
