If Jones and Aspinall are just gonna fight separate contenders then the division just becomes a joke. Why have two champs if their next fight isn't to unify? At that point it just diminishes both their belts.

The funniest thing in the world will be if Stipe wins then Jon gets an immediate rematch 😂

This whole “interim champs have defending the belt before” narrative is ridiculous. It’s only happened because the champion was injured for an extended period not because the champion wanted to fight worse people in the same division instead.

Stipe vs Tom is the ONLY fight that makes sense in the mean time. If Stipe wins, no one can doubt his shot against Jon, if Tom wins, Jon can’t critique his résumé

It’s crazy he stepped up on like a weeks notice and saved the UFC card that night and they’re screwing him over as champ.

Stipe fighting Tom is soooo perfect. If Tom wins, Jon has no choice but to fight him.

The more this happens, the more Francis is proven right.

Jon can’t even argue for himself - his twitter tantrum helps Tom’s argument lol

Jones openly admits he refuses to fight the Interim Champion and Number One contender and instead wants to fight the Number Four who hasn't won a fight in 4 years and hasn't even fought at all in 3 years. This means Jones has to be stripped of the title immediately, the only reason he won't fight the guy he's supposed to fight is that he just doesn't want to.

The only reason Jones vs Stipe is happening is for Jon's resume. It does feel like the UFC really wants this for Jon because it makes no sense otherwise. 41 year old Stipe coming out of retirement whose last fight was a knockout loss and he is getting a title shot instead of your interim champ, yeah UFC has made a mess of this .

If Jones retires after the Stipe fight you really have to wonder why Jones took three years off in his prime for only two fights at HW

Don't get it twisted, Jones never wanted to fight Francis 😂

Stipe should at minimum fight Aspinall for the title shot that Jones basically gifted him.

When are we going to admit jon jones is scared of elite heavyweights? He came back once Francis is gone and now is basically refusing to fight Tom. Bisping did the same thing to Whitaker for his gsp fight but bisping wasn't being talked about as the "goat" like Jon duck the best heavyweights jones is doin now

Absolutely loving these types of videos. Bayliun comes into his own in both these and his analysis’ videos

Why not just do Aspniall V Stipe, and if (when) Aspinall wins, John has a better reason for fighting Aspinall for the actual title fight?

I think they know Tom wins both match ups and the promotion doesn’t want that

The Heavyweight Opportunity Problem Jon Jones is going to be out for quite a while. We have an interim champion, Tom Aspinall, who is ready to be active. Rather than promote Aspinall to undisputed champion we are told that Jones will be keeping the belt to preserve a legacy fight with Stipe Miocic. Jones has stated that this very well could be his last fight. Jones’ defenders will say that he deserves to keep the belt. However, this is just the latest setback for all upcoming heavyweights… opportunity. Since UFC 226, nearly six years ago, only 6 fighters have been involved in heavyweight title fights: Miocic, Cormier, Lewis, Ngannou, Gane, and Jones. The setbacks include: A lengthy trilogy between Miocic and Cormier. An 8 month gap between Miocic - Cormier 3 and Miocic - Ngannou 2. A weird decision to make Gane - Lewis for an interim belt. A long wait because of Ngannou’s injury and decision to part ways with the UFC. The next generation of heavyweights, Tom Aspinall, Sergei Pavlovich, Jailton Almeida, is here. Curtis Blaydes can never be counted out. Volkov is on a 3 fight win streak. We have an undisputed champion who has fought once in the last 4 years and will be out longer. Our currently scheduled title challenger turns 42 this year, hasn’t fought in almost 3 years, and lost his last fight in a brutal second round KO. The division desperately needs to move on. If not, a whole generation of heavyweights will keep wasting their prime years in endless contender fights while the same men sit on their belts at the top.

1:48 spot on imo. Except for the part that Jon came in wanting to fight Francis.. I am aware of the promo Jon did after Francis had fought out his contract, but for me, I am not convinced Jon ever wanted to fight Francis. Just being honest.. But completely agree it makes no sense for Jon and Stipe to fight for HW belt when they have 1 fight combined* between them in last 3 years. And I'm tired of talking point that Tom should expect it or not be surprised. Good pushback against that imo

The only answer is to strip Jones of the title. If Jones wants the Stipe fight, Stipe will still get the recognition of "I beat the GOAT of MMA" if he did win regardless of the belt, and Jones can parade around that he beat the former heavyweight GOAT. Tom can fight Gane in the meantime, then if Jones wants to retire or get his belt back then that's his choice. If not then Almeida probably gets the next shot.

Jon Jones’ opponents on his way to and defending the title were an average of 8-9 years older than him, with like 7” less reach. All those guys with big names gave him shots. But now that he’s resting easy, he’s too scared to give Aspinall-the #1 contender and interim champ-who is 6 years younger a shot. Because he knows he very well could go lights out. The fact that this is even an argument is batshit. Don’t matter if the division isn’t all stellar. Aspinall is the contender, period. It’s his shot next. Stipe’s basically dead. Jones wants to get out. Pass the damn torch like a man. Your time is up. Either this fight next. Or make Stipe fight Aspinall. Then make Jones fight the winner.

In line for breakfast burritos, this is a good way to pass the time.

Put respect on Stipes name.. Family man, firefighter, golden gloves champion & HW goat status. Yes he is old but so was Randy

“You think Tom Aspinall could beat Jon Jones in a round?” Did Tom not see McGregor vs Aldo? Masvidal vs Askren? Woodley vs Lawler? Whittaker vs Brunson?

A lot of KO artists have knocked people out in succession before plenty but not in the way Tom seemingly does it. It never feels like he is KOing people solely due to his power...it always feels like a combo of his power, speed and skill.

Thank you for saying “no one wants to see Stipe” because it’s true and everyone pretends like they care about seeing him because they’re afraid of being called a casual

Not even Conor would be able to get away with cherry picking like this.

Sucks the p4p #1 is scared to fight the best in the world at his weight class. Ducked francis, and is now ducking aspinall. Gsp is the GOAT

the new guy, Tiny Aspinall, has some really good points. All 3 of them are very well-informed and articulated really

Damn, these convos have become a seriously necessary part of my UFC content. Dope stuff chaps

I wish the UFC would make Jones the Champion in recess allowing for Aspinall to fight for his vacant title and when Jones returns he can get a shot back at his title immediately.

I also think Tom would starch Jon pretty quickly. Jon showed us literally nothing in that fight with Gane. He grappled a non grappler and took a kick to the nads. We really don't know what Jon at Heavyweight looks like.

The UFC gives belts because they need one for the DATE, not because it’s an actual Championship Belt. Tom was HW UFC Champion for that night only and the UFC doesn’t see him as a champion

Dana- "the best fight the best here" ALSO Dana- "Legacy Champion of the World"

Holly shit what's wrong with dude in the yellow? Tom is only the interim champ because the UFC was protecting the Stipe/Jones fight. If the UFC didn't care about that fight they would have pushed for Pav/Stipe and Pav would either be interim or #1 contender. The UFC has a cash cow fight with two people who's expiry date is rapidly approaching. This is still a business so they will naturally do the things that make money first.

Aspinall knew the story when he fought for the interim

What y’all are missing is this: Dana says Stipe is the greatest heavyweight of all time, Dana says Jon is the best MMA of all time. Dana WANTS Jon to beat Stipe so then Dana can say “See Jon Jones is the greatest heavyweight and greatest MMA fighter of all time. If he books Stipe and Tom, Tom wins, it then diminishes Stipe’s legacy and Dana loses the chance to say See JJ is the best HW and Fighter of all time. Which is what Dana wants.

I think the main issue nobody mentions is there no actual system the gets you to the title. The "he deserves/doesn't deserve for x reason" is what causes the whos next issue even time. Every other sport has a way that gets you to the championship. Personally i think the PFL system is the perfect balance of meritocracy and encouraging entertainment

Them going with Tom vs Sergei instead of Stipe vs Sergei was such a weird choice even for the UFC. I mean I get why they did it but Dana had to have known that a Stipe win for Jon is very rapidly losing it's value and with Jon's injury being as bad as it is making Stipe wait longer at his age is really dumb.

If Jones cares about “legacy” so bad and wants to duck Tom, then strip him of the title and let him fight Stipe before riding off into the sunset. No need to ruin the division and let Tom defend a useless IC belt for no reason

If Jones didn't get injured, Aspinall wouldn't have gotten the interim shot against Pavlovich. If there was no interim title on the line in that fight, we would still be wanting the Jones vs. Miocic fight

Tom will forever be known as, Tom "Almost" Aspinall

This is getting so old already. Dana has already said what's going on 10 times. They should of never made that an interim title to begin with and we wouldn't have this mess

The thing I don’t understand is, they (the UFC/dana) announced/talked about how they were going to rebook stipe and jones before Tom’s fight even got announced. Tom took the fight knowing this, so while I understand his frustration he knew he was getting into

Great upload, love the debate style stuff!

This is one of the UFC’s biggest screw ups. It’s so stupid to have Tom defend the interim belt instead of fighting the champ. Stipe doesn’t deserve the fight he’s been so inactive and hasn’t beaten any of the current top guys in the division

Tom should fight Cyril. I mean besides Tom there aren’t any top clear contenders. If Tom looses to Gane then all this chat about him is pointless.

Strip Jon’s belt, Tom fights Stipe for it. Division carries on from there as normal until Jon is ready to return and then he gets a shot at whoever’s champ. That seems to me to be the fairest way to do it, but it’s probably not the way to make the most money so I doubt it’ll happen…

Jon is the GOAT But this discussion is embarrassing and will genuinely hurt Jons legacy. The majority of fans are new and have not and will not go and revisit Jons career and have genuinely just seen Tom KO the #1 contender Jon jumped over everybody to get a title shot against a guy who got out wrestled by an injured Ngannou who is currently a top 10 WBC Boxer! And now Jon is so entitled, he genuinely believes his LHW legacy is more important than Tom actually having HW fights and wins and a belt

If I'm Aspinall I just keep beating the rest of the division and make a mockery of someone holding the belt waiting for another inactive fighter. Make the Stipe fight irrelevant.

Wait, unless he wants to fight the winner of Almeida/ Blaydes defending the interim belt he ought to keep improving in the gym

Guy in the yellow jumper is talking absolute facts. Fair play.

The fact that people are easily forgetting that the belt is available for grabs after jones vs stipe because they are both retiring so that means no holder…. Is just hard for me not to use a certain word to quantify the stupidity.

We all know Jones only moved up to heavyweight to fight Ngannou secure the Heavyweight belt for his legacy and retire into the sunset. A few years ago seemed like a good path for him, but things didn’t turn out that way. Jones has no intention of fighting Aspinall and neither does Stipe. They’re both too old and have too much to lose against Tom. The UFC really should have done more to keep Ngannou and scout out some more young heavyweights because the division is basically Tom with no competition.

He should stop crying over stipulations they already set and everybody knew before he fought for interim and defend it while getting paid pretty simple

Sad to say it but in Jones' mind I imagine it's Stipe or nothing, and he leaves his gloves in the ring following the bout. He doesn't care about the 'right' thing for the division, so we'll sadly have to abandon the idea of a meritocracy on this one, despite Tom being ready and willing. From a forecasters standpoint I believe the best outcome for all parties would be a Stipe victory over Jones. The billing of Interim Champ, New Gen Tom vs. Greatest Heavyweight of All Time Stipe (doing his best Randy Couture impression) would be the perfect changing of the guard.

Luke you kill me brother….Aspinall beats Jones in a round? Yeah that was the single worst take I’ve ever heard. 😂

Us- Why IS "the Stipe thing" going on?? Dana- you don't know anything about this fucking business Us- Soo...money then??

The UFC forced Anganu to leave. Jones didn't want to fight Anganu. The same is happening to Aspinall. We know they aren't too happy about it by keeping quiet. I wish Aspinall called out Jones for staining the sports and call him out harder. But I understand Aspinall is just one of those guys too respectful. He is really in a tough position and going against the company never pays off.

As much as i like your analysis, your systematic dismissal of Gane can be disappointing. Sure, the guy lost to (arguably) the GOAT, and against Nganou (to decision which is not a small feat). But he also got some pretty good victories againt tough opponents, is highranked (n°2 ou 3) and has yet to fight Aspinall. It would make sens for both of them.

if any other fighter in ufc history did what Jon is doing they’d be stripped immediately and Dana would shit on them every chance he gets

Only real options for Jones: - Vacate the title and do his "legacy fight" with Stipe Miocic. - Fight the INTERM champ and number one contender Tom Aspinall. Jones, is injured atm-so fine let him recover. In the meantime, Tom will fight the winner of Curtis Blaydes and Jailton Almeida. Then Jones and Aspinall at the end of the year.

They killed heavyweight division. Overall, all divisions from 170 to 265 right now don't feel alive

The options are: (A) Everybody waits for Jones vs Stipe. (B) Neither Jones nor Stipe fight again. Aspinall is champion and does a title defense against Gane or Blaydes. There is no other option. Everything else is wishful thinking.

Heavy weight is easily the most dangerous division in combat sports. One punch can change a persons entire life trajectory. That being said, I can not comprehend why people say Stipe is the "Greatest Heavy-Weight of all time"? -Did everyone take some crazy pills and forget Stipe being beheaded in front of a live audience via Ngannou at UFC 260!? Stipe has massive brain damage and hasn't been cleared to fight for over 3 years and probably shouldn't fight ever again. *I am not a Doctor. And if I was I wouldn't clear Jones to professionally fight either. Jones has popped more times for performance enhancing drugs than the entire 1980s Russain Olympic Team combined! Neither Jones or Stipe should be allowed to be called Champion. Aspinall is Champ now.

The dude on the left doesn’t have the ability to wait his turn to speak

Strong agree Tom v Stipe at UFC 300 makes perfect sense to me. Tom v Alex sounds like bad idea to me I think would be 1-sided fight.. I agree I think Tom could beat Jon too. I think Francis could also tbh. For me top 3 HW's in world are Francis, Jon, Tom imo. 17:06 exactly! 🎯 Who else is there? It's giving Tom impossible task! So true

The UFC literally doing a boxing move by having 2 champions at the same weightclass each fighting someone else who no one cares about, even if the obvious fight that everyone wants to see is right there, all that while having Dana White continuously shitting on boxing is really funny and sad to me…

The "champion" has 1 fight at heavyweight. The Stipe fight makes no sense. Should be Aspinal vs Miocic at 300

I can hear both sides .. from Tom’s side I went through the gauntlet I’ve earned this title shot .. from Jon’s side the last super prospect you put in front of me got stopped in 60 seconds without landing a shot… what did that do for his legacy? And we all know the UFC will always choose money over sport lmao

He should rematch Blaydes. That score needs to be settled. Why am I the only person saying this???

This was such a awesome podcast might have to consider signing up

I really don't like the way you guys treat Charles Oliviera. The man defended the title against the whole top of the division in some of the most exciting fights we've ever seen. He loses once, and unlike many other former champs in the same position he takes a fight against the next top prospect and DESTROYS him. Still he doesn't get the shot at getting his title back. Why didn't you fight for him to get the next shot? He was by far the kost deserving. Now he's fighting Armin, an extremely dangerous guy, and you guys are treating it as though he's been ducking guys and is doing this after having his arm twisted. What other former champ is as game and willing as THAT guy? I lose respect for you guys every time you treat him as an undeserving footbote.

Basically the UFC screwed themselves by putting this dumb interim title on it. It *only* makes sense from a money standpoint, because the fight itself is also probably going to be trash. Also I’m sick of people saying this is a legacy fight. It’s not. It does absolutely nothing for Jones’ legacy, because Stipe is so far past his prime, this is always going to have an asterisk.

I don't thinks jones will be able to control Tom like he does with everyone else. Jones has 1 foot out the door already. He's gonna retire after his so called legacy fight. Why do you think that word keeps coming up. If he fights Tom his legacy will be tarnished and he knows it... it'll never happen unfortunately.

Only downside to Tom v Stipe at 300, is the main event will go for 45 seconds.

The rankings already don’t mean shit to Jones. Now he wants the undisputed belt not mean shit. What exactly is Jones fighting for? He is defending a vacant belt against the 4th rank guy who hasn't fought in 4 years. What a shit show.

Strip Jon, have Jones and Stipe fight when Jones is ready, (why does there need to be a title if they're both going to retire anyways, besides money) Have Alex and Tom fight for the official HW title at UFC 300. Hire me for matchmaking Dana.

Why didn't you just ask Tom? He's right there in the yellow jumper. The camera angle makes him look small but I'm sure it's him, haha

Have Gane fight winner of Blaydes v Almeida. Winner of Gane v (B or A) fights Tom for the interim. Or just have Tom fight Gane next anyway. You just carry on like the interim is the actual title. Pretend Jones v Stipe is its own thing.

You're missing the big reason for Stipe to fight roidman (aka Jones): $$$$$$$$$. Huge payday to retire on.

it’s like losses to ngannou don’t count anymore

The way I see it Tom is just as much of a champion as jones is… neither of them beat Francis. Tom should just defend his belt against the next best guy since jones doesn’t want to fight real contenders (like a champion should).

These guys heavily biased towards Aspinall being a british champ. Somehow Stipe is too washed to fight Jones but and hasnt done anything to deserve it but at the same time is holding up the division for Aspinall. When realistically if thats the case Aspinall could just defend his interim belt against someone they think deserves it.

It’s wild that Stipe is even in the conversation. It’s been 3 years since he was knocked out. How he’s even in the top 5 of the division is mind blowing

new found love for the editor chatting sense

So basically Tom doesn’t wanna hold up his end of the deal, you knew what you signed up for when you took the fight, Tom tore his knee up and took a year off, Jon tore his pec off the bone, and Tom’s tryna act like he didn’t need a year off, tryna rush him back is a cowards move.

Also Jones and Stipe could fight without the title on the line, their fight would still do numbers without the title on the line.

Alex must feel like he’s going crazy lol the fight was announced and there were injuries. The stipe fight was made before Tom got his strap. It’s why he’s interim champion at all. The alternative is send stipe off with the promise of a big money fight only for it to fizzle. I honestly don’t mind sending stipe off with a bag given they had made the fight with genuine injuries delaying. You’re a mark is you’re worked up about Jon not wanting to fight Tom. The fight is already sold if that’s the case. Jon finally is selling his fights for once. And Tom is playing his part too. Heavyweights use their brains and there’s outrage haha Tom will go get his ppv pts money with the interim title, stack up a win or two, then fight Jon in a monster event.

Tom vs stipe or Tom vs winner of Blaydes and Almeida. (Only bc Jon is injured)

I think if you’re Jones, you vacate. All Bones wants is Stipe to punctuate his legacy and ride off to the sunset. Tom deserves to keep his strap and fight dudes that will still be relevant in 5 years.

Before Tom fought Sergei he knew that Jon vs Stipe was going to happen. He knew that was the deal so he's got to eat it. Period.

One question I have; why are fighters who’ve last their last fight still getting title shots?? 🤷‍♂️

Jones isn't even the second best heavyweight on the planet. It Goes, Tom, Francis then Jones.

The sad part is Jones vs Stipe doesn’t need the title involved. Neither of them even care about the belt in this fight. The UFC’s only solution really is to strip Jon and have the heavyweights carry on. Jones vs Stipe can still happen while Tom gets a chance to actually fight this year. If Jones has a problem with it, so be it.

Imma stop the video at the 2 second mark. They fight and unify the belt this isn't rocket science.

After 1 yr of inactivity you should be out of the rankings, let alone 4 yrs. WHY IS STIPE STILL EVEN RANKED?

the guy in the yellow shirt was cookin the whole episode!!!

0:11 Mirgliotta looking like Tom took HIS belt. 😆

Only thing that makes sense is Stipe vs Tom while Jon is injured. If Stipe doesn't want it then move on from him. A #4 fighter can't have that much pull to hold up the division. If he does then winner fights Jon when he comes back to unify the belt.