Are we ever going to see Jon Jones fight Tom Aspinall for the UFC heavyweight title? How long are we willing to wait before we move on and blame Jones for denying us the one fight that matters for the division? Plus, the former World’s Strongest Man is fighting (again) on Saturday, and that should be … memorable.
All that and more in this week’s mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @benfowlkesmma or @benfowlkes.bsky.social.
@Beastin364: Ariel’s latest update made it sound like Jon Jones is the only one standing in the way of the Aspinall fight. At what point should the UFC accept he’s never gonna do it and move on?
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This summer. If this summer comes and goes and the UFC is staring at a fall calendar that doesn’t have Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall for the undisputed UFC heavyweight title somewhere on it, that should be it. Forget it. Move on. Strip Jones of the heavyweight belt and have Aspinall fight someone else for the real one.
Jones has had his chance to say yes — or give any indication whatsoever that he’s willing to defend his belt against the only reasonable opponent for it — and if he lets the bulk of 2025 go by without agreeing to it, then we have to accept that he’s intentionally avoiding it. Only he knows why. I can’t get myself to believe that Jones is actually afraid of Aspinall. But at some point it doesn’t matter why. This is the fight. Either you’re going to do it or you’re not.
And if he decides to go with not? Sorry to say it, but that will be a lingering stain on Jones’ already complicated legacy. Fans will remember how he insisted on fighting an old and ring-rusted version of Stipe Miocic instead of defending the heavyweight title against the interim champ. They will remember that when it came to two big fights against two big men — Aspinall and Francis Ngannou both — Jones fought zero of them.
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His résumé at light heavyweight still makes him one of the best of all time, but if he exits the sport this way, it could be all the nudge we need to regard Jones as something just short of the best.
@JedKMeshew: On a scale of Expend4bles to Crank 2: High Voltage, how excited for Pudz vs. Eddie Hall are you? Myself, I’m at least at the Beekeeper if not a full blown Crank 2.
I’m very pleased to say that I haven’t seen a single one of those movies, but yeah, you know I’ll be watching Mariusz Pudzianowski vs. Eddie Hall on Saturday afternoon. Just the sheer physical magnitude of it. The muscles. The stiff, awkward punches. The gas tanks that will empty within the opening minute. It’s pure entertainment.
Plus, KSW always gives its fans a show. You tune into one of those events and it feels like a big, loud, dumb spectacle — which is exactly what fight sports should be. Then you throw nearly 600 pounds worth of vascular humanity into the main attraction and you have yourself a recipe for success.
@Ryan_Harkness: Mac vs Chandler at UFC 317 – crazy, or crazy like a fox
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First of all, Conor McGregor is probably never fighting in the UFC again. He’s too busy pretending he’s going to run for president of Ireland on a platform that, if enacted by other countries, would mean he basically never got to go on vacation ever again, seeing as how he has a habit of committing crimes in foreign lands.
Second, let us admit that Michael Chandler is deeply damaged goods at this point. He’s 2-5 in the UFC. He got absolutely wrecked by Paddy Pimblett. Beating him wouldn’t even really be that impressive for McGregor right now, and yet the 2025 version of McGregor is so far out of this life and very likely out of shape that he might be the one UFC lightweight of note that Chandler could still potentially beat.
Honestly? If McGregor did decide to come back, it would almost be more trouble than it’s worth for the UFC matchmakers. Because they’d be the ones tasked with finding an opponent he could actually get a win against.
@WorldsWorstHero: What is something about the UFC/MMA that has surprised you in the last ten years? Also, what’s something that isn’t surprising?
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The extent to which the UFC has drained a lot of the fun out of this sport has surprised me. Putting every fighter in the same clothes, limiting exciting or creative entrances, making it harder for fighters to stand out as individuals — all of that surprises me coming from a company that produces live events.
Maybe that’s because the UFC thinks itself more as a content production company than a live entertainment product these days. Company executives learned how to make more money on a less interesting product, and that was a bad development for both fans and fighters. It took fans’ interest for granted and made fighters more interchangeable.
The UFC is a well-oiled machine that churns out a very consistent product now, but so is McDonald’s. There’s a sameness and blandness to that and it isn’t much fun, even if it’s very profitable.
What’s unsurprising is how much better all the fighters are now. And not just the champions, but pretty much across the board. The range of skills, the overall athleticism, the innovations in tactics and techniques — all of that is on a much higher level than it was a decade ago. I feel like we expected that to some extent and told ourselves that it would happen. Now it really, truly has.
@Mike_Fierce: Could Paddy the Baddy actually be for real?!? Or is that 7-0 UFC record a mirage?!?
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You can maintain a paper tiger in the UFC for only so long. Eventually, if the skills aren’t there, he’ll get exposed. The opposite has happened with Paddy Pimblett. The more we see of him, the better he seems to get. He looked spectacular in his win over Chandler, especially in some of the areas where he’s struggled in the past. At this point, we have to give the man his due.
@nickj812: How would Fedor V Randy have played out? (& will MMA ever get something like that again sorry ….err ever?)
Feels like there.is way too much filler MMA currently with few fights / events to actually care about.
Randy Couture was 44 years old when he “resigned” as UFC heavyweight champ in an effort to go fight Fedor Emelianenko on his own. Which is my way of saying, I’d have picked Fedor back then.
The Russian’s strength, speed and punching power would have all been too much for that version of Couture. I also don’t think Couture would have been able to rely on getting to the clinch and getting him to the ground, which was his path to victory in most fights. Couture never had that lights-out power on the feet, but Emelianenko very much did. They both would have made a bunch of money, but Couture would have ended the night looking up at the lights.
@Autoheartrecord: How does it feel to have watched a full ass mania … the year after the consensus best mania in forever?
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I haven’t watched a full WrestleMania in probably six or seven years, and I really enjoyed this one … right up until the main event of the second night. John Cena and Cody Rhodes didn’t deliver anywhere near as much excitement as the previous night’s headliner. Obviously, the more you build something up, the more you have to deliver in order to keep it from feeling like a letdown. And there’s just no way you’re going to convince me that a surprise appearance from Travis Scott is good enough.
Prior to that, I had a great time. And I have to thank all of Uncrowned’s great wrestling writers for that. Reading and helping edit their stories in the week leading up to the event really got me pumped while also giving me the context I needed to get caught up. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go order myself a Seth Rollins T-shirt.
@MrEd315: What would friends and family say about you – better babyface or heel?
Heel for sure. No way I can pull off the babyface role. At best, I’m the heel who is temporarily talked into an alliance of mutual benefit with a beloved babyface, only to betray him in the end when I can no longer stomach his cloying positivity and desperate need for broad public approval. Also I will insist that my entrance music include my own terribly off-key singing, just to piss people off.
