According to Cormier, the comparison is not valid because Jones is not currently out for a unification fight against Aspinall of his own free will, not because he can’t do it.
“This is not a real indication of what’s going on,” Korme said in another video posted on his Youtube channel. “Look guys, John is out due to injury, so Tom Aspinall is now the champion. I understand that. But that’s not what was going on when we fought him. He misrepresented the situation.”
“Aspinall won the belt because John got injured. I was beaten by John, but he was disqualified. Those are two different situations. In my case, he got caught doing something he shouldn’t have done – he was stripped of the title and suspended from competing. He couldn’t compete not because of the injury, but because of the banned substances found in his system”
“That’s my response. Jones, it wasn’t the same, buddy. So regardless of what a wizard you are at manipulating words, that’s not the case. It was different back then. You couldn’t compete when I was fighting. You couldn’t make the decision and come out to fight, but you can do it now.”
Earlier, Jon Jones, who holds the current UFC heavyweight championship belt, said that even in the event of a successful title defense against Stipe Miocic, he would not come out for a fight against Tom Aspinall, but would push for a fight against Alex Pereira, who holds the bantamweight belt.
Jones and Miocic’s fight this November will reportedly headline UFC 309 in New York City.