Jon Jones explains why he isn't interested in fighting Tom Aspinall

Next weekend, Jon Jones is set to take on Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309.

It's not the fight that fans are interested in for the organization's heavyweight champion. The opponent many fans want to see Jones take on is Tom Aspinall.

Aspinall has dominated the heavyweight division since he entered the UFC back in 2020. During that time he holds a record of 8-1 with all of the wins coming in the first two rounds. The only loss was the result of a knee injury.

He is also the UFC's current interim champion in the division and has already defended his interim belt once.

Miocic doesn't have quite as strong of a case for a title fight right now.

While Miocic is one of the greatest heavyweight fighters in mixed martial arts history, his days at the top of the division passed a while ago. His last fight came back in March of 2021 and he was knocked out by Francis Ngannou in that fight.

Unfortunately for fight fans, none of that convinced Jones that Aspinall should be the one getting a shot at his belt and based on a recent comment, it doesn't seem like that will change any time soon.

In a recent interview, the New York Post's Scott Fontana asked Jones if Aspinall could do anything to change Jones' stance on a fight and the heavyweight champ offered a ridiculous excuse for why he won't change his mind.

“I’ve been here for so long, and he just got to the UFC not too long ago," Jones said. "If he wanted to fight me, he could’ve been here. Like, where have you been all of this time?”

It would be a bad excuse for any champion, but is especially terrible coming from Jones. When Jones was given his first UFC title shot, he had been in the organization for less than three years and had only fought in the UFC seven times.

That didn't stop Shogun Rua, who was already a well-established name in MMA, from giving him a title shot.

Jones also didn't apply this same logic to his last opponent. Like Aspinall, Ciryl Gane had fought in the UFC nine times before he met Jones last year. He had also spent less time in the UFC than Aspinall currently has.

Jones certainly couldn't have just overlooked this because Gane looked like a favorable matchup after he was outwrestled by Ngannou on one good leg.

The UFC champ also went on to make the excuses more ridiculous later in the interview.

“At the end of the day, he has no real standout legacy," Jones said. "I think the only guy he beat was Andrei Arlovski. Andrei was very old at the time. He really has nothing that entices me. Nothing. He reminds me of a bunch of other up-and-comers that I fought that it does nothing for my legacy."

He's just flat-out wrong about Aspinall's legacy and Arlovski being "the only guy he beat." Aspinall currently holds five wins over opponents ranked in the top 10, with three of those opponents being in the top five of the division. None of those opponents were Arlovski.

A win over a prime contender like Aspinall would do plenty for Jones' legacy as his career winds down. It's making excuses not to fight him so he can take on a 42-year-old instead that doesn't do anything for the legacy of a fighter that many regard as the GOAT.