Rumors that Jon Jones could be on the verge of retiring have been increasing in recent times, and it seems Tom Aspinall believes that could be the case judging by his comments during a recent chat with fellow UFC star Paddy Pimblett.
“He’s living his best life, mate, in Thailand,” Aspinall told Pimblett on his YouTube channel when asked about Jones. “Everybody reaches their sell-by date, don’t they?”
“Everybody’s got a time limit. He’s reached it, and we move on.
“It obviously was a bit annoying [waiting for news on the Jones fight] at the time, but it’s all in the past now.
“We’re moving forward, everything’s good. We can get fighting again, and I just want to get fighting, mate.”
Aspinall doesn’t seem phased by the fact that he might not have a chance to prove himself against one of the all-time greats of the sport, and instead is just eager to get back to competing on a regular basis.
“It’s better now because I do know what’s going on a little bit. I am going to fight soon, so that’s nice. But for like the last kind of 6 months, I’ve just not known what’s going on.”
“Do you know what the worst bit is?… It’s like money, fame, titles, rankings, all that aside, I just love fighting. I just like fighting people…
“I want to be the best fighter I can be. I love it, I’m in the gym every day, [and] I just want to fight. That’s been taken away from me for nearly a year now…
“It’s a bit frustrating, to be honest. But, we are nearly over it now, which is good.”
Aspinall’s comments appear to back up claims from veteran reporter Ariel Helwani just a couple of days ago that the UFC are likely to announce in the next couple of weeks that Jones vs. Aspinall isn’t happening.
