Daniel Cormier says Jon Jones missed perfect timing to face Tom Aspinall, and explains why

Aspinall currently holds the record for the shortest average fight time in UFC history, sitting at just 2:02.

Except for his bout with Andrei Arlovski, the powerful champion has never seen the second round in his UFC career, leading some to question how he would handle a full five-round contest.

‘DC’ said on his YouTube channel: “Francis Ngannou could not fight twenty-five minutes until he went and fought Stipe Miocic for twenty-five minutes and he exhausted himself.

“Then he was able to fight twenty-five minutes;

“We don’t know what twenty-five minutes with Tom Aspinall looks like.

“So the unknown should give guys confidence that right now is the time to fight you in that long fight…

“Jon Jones, I think he made a huge mistake by not fighting you now.

“Because what if you go twenty-five minutes and you still win, but you understand that fatigue? Because it is a different fatigue. Once you do it once, though, it’ll become like, yes.

“Right now’s the time to be fighting Tom Aspinall before you get that experience,” Cormier concluded.

With an impressive 30-fight career, Jon Jones has reached the championship distance eight times, giving him a significant experience advantage when compared to Aspinall.

Tom Aspinall jokes about going five rounds with Ciryl Gane

Aspinall still has not fought into the later rounds of a professional fight, having never reached the third, fourth, or fifth round in his career.

While many expect UFC 321’s main event to end quickly by knockout, the Briton had a bit of fun by predicting the exact opposite outcome for Gane.

“That’s the plan. Jab and hold against the fence,” Aspinall joked (via MMA Fighting).

A journalist then replied: “We’ll be booing then” while Dana White added: “I will too.”