Tom Aspinall and Jon Jones are at it again! Everyone thought that saga was over after the UFC promoted Aspinall to undisputed champion and pitted him at UFC 321 against Ciryl Gane. But the unceremonious end to that bout with the eye poke, and the UFC White House event getting a confirmation from all parties concerned, has reignited the heavyweight rivalry.

Aspinall has disclosed his situation of having both eyes affected with Brown’s syndrome through an ophthalmologist’s report. He is experiencing double vision and restricted movement of his eye, which results in uncertainty looming over his fighting career until he has a full recovery. But Jones used his misfortune as fuel for mockery. Better late than never, the British slugger has fired back!

Tom Aspinall pushes back as Jon Jones attempts to jump back into the spotlight

In an interview with Ariel Helwani, Tom Aspinall admitted that he once considered Jones to be the GOAT, yet here he is still poking at him. Aspinall called the whole situation immature and hypocritical, especially when it is the guy who has withdrawn from their fight that is at the center of it all.

Ariel Helwani made him answer the question about Jones’ shots regarding Aspinall’s ‘heart.’ The champion held nothing back, “Good for him. I thought that guy was the GOAT—focus on yourself, bro. You’re retired. Just do your own thing.” He reinforced his position, saying, “If he is so much better than everybody else… just go and enjoy yourself. Don’t worry about what I’m doing.”

Aspinall clarified that he even attempted to provoke Jones, but soon realized, “Jon’s just doing some damage to himself out there. So I’ll let him do his thing.”

Helwani then moved on to Jones’ recent assertion—he was given a $30 million offer to fight Aspinall. Aspinall’s response was quick and blunt. “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind… 30 mil, mate. I’ll take that.” When he was asked whether he was anywhere near such a payment, he laughed off: “I was getting nowhere near.”

Originally, the heavyweight story was supposed to be Tom Aspinall vs. Jon Jones, but after Jones repeatedly ducked the fight, he eventually retired, and the UFC moved on with Aspinall vs. Gane at UFC 321. Now, Jones has announced that he is not retired, is working out five days a week, and is publicly begging Dana White for a spot on the White House card. The rumours are that Alex Pereira could be his next opponent, but Dana White does not seem very keen on letting him back in yet, so everything still depends on that call.

Following the UFC 321 no-contest decision due to the double eye-poke, Jon Jones immediately switched to the mode of humor – changing his profile picture to an eyepatch and even showing up at a Dirty Boxing event with a horse that had an eye patch on. Aspinall did not find it funny.

Aspinall’s eye injury is no joke

The whole situation illustrates the current state of the heavyweight division quite well: Aspinall is sidelined for good with a serious injury, and he has no desire for drama at all, whereas Jon Jones constantly becomes visible and obscured, creating some commotion without even getting into the ring.

The seriousness of  Aspinall’s eye injury has reached a point where it cannot be downplayed any longer. He received a double poke that hit both eyes. He also had to deal with impaired vision, and so the order from his doctor was to rest, with a possibility of surgery looming over him. These types of injuries are not the ones that fighters walk off.

There have been cases of retirement because of such unhealed injuries. Aspinall even confessed that he still cannot see clearly. He is facing injections into the eyeball, and he has been diagnosed with a serious problem that affects his eye muscles. Such long-lasting damage can easily get him off the track of success he has built up.

Dana White made the situation even tougher. Instead of supporting the position of his undisputed champion, he dismissed the whole situation with a frank comment that it was a “great showing, sh*** ending” and he openly doubted whether Aspinall could have continued after the foul.

That added one more layer of frustration to an already brutal injury lay-off.

Aspinall’s patience finally wore out when it came to the topic of Ciryl Gane’s part in the whole mess. He was very straightforward. “Gane is a cheat,” he remarked, indicating that the eye pokes were not the only problem the Frenchman had. In his previous bouts, he also hit the back of the head and did not stay at the groin level.

And even though the injury was very apparent, he still had to defend himself in public against the charge of “quitting,” with Jon Jones being one of the accusers.