Reigning UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who is set to make his title defense against Stipe Miocic in less than three months, has no plans to fight young challengers like Sergey Pavlovic and Tom Aspinall, despite seeing one of them as the future king of the division.
“I look at young fighters like Tom Aspinall and Sergey Pavlovic and I think they’re amazing,” MMA Fighting quoted the American as saying. “They destroy their opponents in the first rounds, but the older I get, the more I look at it as a business. There’s no point in quibbling about pride – I look at it purely from a legacy and business perspective”
“If the hardcore fans know them, that’s great, but I need to fight people that the bulk of the fans know because there’s always going to be a new challenge, there’s always going to be someone younger than you and everyone’s going to want to see if you can do it again”
The title fight between Jones and Miocic will reportedly be underwritten by the division’s number one, Sergey Pavlovic, however, the American does not see the Russian knockout artist as his successor, but rather British fourth ranked Tom Aspinall.
“Tom Aspinall, I think he has the potential to do something really special in the heavyweight division. I suppose most guys would find it very difficult to beat him – I really believe that.”
As a reminder, the heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic will be the main event of UFC 295, which takes place on November 11 in New York City.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/32494-dzhon-dzhons-nazval-svoego-preemnika-v-ufc.html?rand=19907
