The Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall saga gains new layers every day on social media with both UFC heavyweight champions — lineal and interim — taking shots at each other. Meanwhile, UFC CEO Dana White constantly repeats, whenever asked, that the unification bout will happen.
UFC veteran Renato Moicano doesn’t share the optimism.
“I think it’s absurd,” Moicano told MMA Fighting about Aspinall being forced to sit out a record time without a chance to unify belts. “[Jones] is doing the same thing [Conor] McGregor did to [Michael] Chandler, two years waiting, wanting to pass Tom Aspinall’s prime. The difference is that one is a champion — but McGregor was more than a champion because McGregor has the McGregor hype.”
Moicano does believe White truly wants to book the fight. But even though the company could quickly move on from it if Jones decides to retire instead of facing a young challenger in Aspinall, having him around while negotiating an important TV deal means good business.
“The UFC is in a difficult situation because at the same time they want to resolve this, they still need Jon Jones — at least his image, just like they need McGregor,” Moicano said. “That’s two problems the UFC would rather not have, but if they tell these guys to f*ck off, or if they pull them off, the company loses a lot. There’s no space for stars like in the past. Like McGregor, like Jon Jones, like Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar. It’s more spread now. I think the only star that had that kind of appeal was Alex Pereira, who had that and lost. Had he beat [Magomed] Ankalaev, he would be on that level of popularity.
“But Pereira lost, and Ankalaev is [champion]. Tell me, which champion is popular? You have [Alexandre] Pantoja, who isn’t popular. [Merab] Dvalishvili is getting more popular but isn’t popular either. [Alexander] Volkanovski is popular, but lost twice to Islam [Makhachev] and he’s older — and was never a global star like Max Holloway was. At 155 you have Islam, who’s very popular in the Arab world but doesn’t impresses the American and Western audience. Dustin Poirier would have been better deal for the UFC. At 170 you had Belal Muhammad and now it’s Jack Della Maddalena, who has like 300,000 followers, he just started. At 185, it’s Dricus Du Plessis, who isn’t popular. [Khamzat] Chimaev would have been much better. At 205, it’s Magomed Ankalaev. Not even his mother cares about him [laughs].
“And heavyweight it’s Jon Jones. The UFC is in [Jones and McGregor’s] hands, but in my opinion they should strip him of the belt and put Tom Aspinall to fight someone else. But if you look at the division, who else? Ciryl Gane? I think Ciryl Gane sucks. People will criticize me, but Ciryl Gane can’t even spell jiu-jitsu, brother. [Alexander] Volkov is doing anything but fight. People won’t fight. So the UFC is in Jon Jones’ hands. And I don’t think the [Aspinall] fight won’t happen. Jon Jones is just buying time and won’t do it because there’s a big chance he loses to Tom Aspinall. Aspinall is a new generation of heavyweights. He’s fast, athletic, and the risk isn’t worth it.”
In the end, Moicano feels that the idea of having Jones face Aspinall hurts the promotion because the UFC, under today’s business model and ESPN deal, isn’t incentivized to open the checkbook for bigger fights.
“Not only it creates demand [from fans], it gives [Jones] leverage in negotiation,” Moicano said. “McGregor has an absurd leverage with the UFC. And people don’t understand that the UFC has made McGregor. You can’t take anyone and try to repeat the recipe, you need a very specific personality to make someone a McGregor. But at the same time, without the UFC machine that can make anyone a star, McGregor wouldn’t have become the monster he is today. The UFC has to be very careful. He has to watch the wolf so it doesn’t grow to big, you know? The wolf has to stay small to scare the others, but don’t bite the owner.”
With growing site fees for on the road events, and an even bigger TV deal on the horizon, the finances of the UFC look better than even on the long term.
“[The UFC] is making money in every shape and form now, especially with this switch, ESPN leaving and Netflix or Amazon coming,” Moicano said. “There’s more billions now. They’re saying like a billion per year. And like, it doesn’t matter who’s fighting. Signing guys for 8+8 or 10+10 on the Contender [Series] and putting them to fight. Like Raul Rosas Jr. fighting someone ranked. Like [Caio] Borralho, who left the Contender on a small contract and was already fighting tough guys. You win? Promote this guy. You lose? Call someone else. Their machine is pretty much unbeatable, so they aren’t too worried about any of that.
“I think they’re on this leverage with Jon Jones and McGregor because of the [TV deal]. They need numbers to show Netflix. Who are the ones that sell? It’s obviously McGregor first, then Jon Jones, and maybe Alex Pereira [third]. But they need to have these numbers to be able to negotiate how much [the network] will pay. After the deal is done, f*ck it, brother, it’s five more years with money on the pocket, and we think about all that later.”
