Tom Aspinall announces beginning of "hunting season" with a Jon Jones twist

Interim UFC heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall continues to throw jabs at his division's undisputed titleholder, Jon Jones. For months now, the much-awaited unification bout between the two has been an elusive target for Dana White and the UFC.

Rumors surrounding the bout suggest that Jones is demanding an extremely large payday, thus delaying the negotiations. However, there are those who speculate that 'Bones' is merely ducking Tom Aspinall, suggesting that the Englishman is the toughest test in Jones' late career.

Aspinall echoes these speculations in a recent Instagram post, where he went hunting - while subtly implying that Jones is the "duck" he's hunting:

"Lovely day for it 😎 Hunting season has begun 👊"

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Check out Tom Aspinall's post below:

If you have a keen eye, you'd see a tiny edited photo of Jon Jones as a duck in the background of the photos.

Check out the photos below:

Jon Jones featured in Tom Aspinall's photos. [Image credit: @tomaspinallofficial on Instagram]

Chael Sonnen claims that the Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall bout is already "losing steam"

Ever since winning the UFC heavyweight title in March 2023, Jon Jones has only defended it once. Because of this, Tom Aspinall has become the longest-reigning interim champion in UFC history.

Jones has been transparent with his intention to make this legacy fight worth the risk for him from a financial standpoint. This caused people to speculate that his exorbitant demands may ultimately cause the bout to get scrapped altogether.

As per UFC Hall of Famer Chael Sonnen, the public might lose interest in a Jones-Aspinall fight very soon. In an episode of Good Guy / Bad Guy show on YouTube, Sonnen said:

"This fight is losing steam. Now, generally when you get a big fight that people want to see and at the night of Madison Square Garden, I think it was the biggest fight [in] our industry any way you want to do it. I think the biggest fight our industry could produce was Tom [Aspinall] vs. Jon [Jones]. I will just tell you by the numbers, it is losing steam."

Sonned added:

"Now, my own theory is because the audience isn't getting behind something that they genuinely don't believe that they can ultimately get. I think they're losing faith that the match will happen."

Check out Chael Sonnen's comments below (13:41):

About the author

Duane is an expert MMA writer at Sportskeeda with over 10 years of experience working for the likes of Philippine Star, Esquire Philippines, Playboy Philippines, etc. A major in English, he has written over 2000 articles for Sportskeeda section, extensively covering UFC and boxing fights.

Duane is a practicing MMA fighter with a 11-7 record. He is also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt and trains Muay Thai. His connection with MMA dates back to 2005, when he turned into a fan after watching Fedor Emelianenko defeat Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic at Pride FC - Final Conflict 2005.

Emelianenko finds himself right at the top of Duane’s Mt. Rushmore of MMA fighters, alongside other big names like Demetrious Johnson, Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, and Anderson Silva.

Duane’s love for the sport is reflected in his writings, where he believes in speculating but not insinuating. He uses his intensive knowledge and skills in MMA to provide unique insights to the readers, along with sourcing information only from reliable sources.

Outside of work, Duane enjoys martial arts training, visual arts, film criticism, video games, and creative writing.

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Edited by Tejas Rathi