‘Bones' of contention: The criticism surrounding Jon Jones and the UFC heavyweight title explained
Over 1,80,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the UFC strip reigning heavyweight champion Jon 'Bones' Jones of his title.
For newcomers to MMA, Jones' dominance can be likened to that of Ricky Ponting in cricket — a serial winner. With 13 title defences to his name, the American wrestler is one of the sport's all-time greats.
But growing frustration among fans and analysts has reached a tipping point. The accusation? That Jones is leveraging his superstar status to delay fights.
While most UFC fighters step into the octagon two or three times a year, Jones has managed that just once in the last 11 years — in 2019, when he defended his belt against Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos. Since moving up to heavyweight from light heavyweight in 2023, he's fought just twice.
His most recent victory came via a third-round knockout of Stipe Miocic — a win that sent Miocic into retirement. However, three of Jones' last five wins have gone to decision, including a controversial split verdict over Santos in 2019.
So what's holding him back?
Age might be one factor — Jones is now 37. The heavyweight division demands an enormous level of endurance, and recovery takes longer. But injuries have played a more immediate role. A torn pectoral tendon forced him out of his 2023 clash with Miocic at UFC 295. That was followed by elbow surgery, delaying his return further.
Then there's the off-cage chaos.
Jones' career has been repeatedly derailed by legal troubles and out-of-competition controversies — DUIs, hit-and-run incidents, domestic violence allegations, and multiple failed drug tests. These missteps have led to suspensions, vacated titles, and long stretches of inactivity.
What now for Bones?
While the UFC hasn't officially announced his next opponent, the obvious challenger is Tom Aspinall.
Aspinall made an emphatic statement by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich in just over a minute to claim the interim title after Jones pulled out of their scheduled bout. He followed that with another first-round finish, this time against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304.
Despite his momentum, Aspinall remains stuck with the 'interim' tag — a placeholder while Jones stays inactive.
Aspinall recently claimed he's 'moving on' and believes Jones is 'retired.' But Jones responded with a cryptic message: 'A lot of stuff is happening behind the scenes,' adding that legal constraints are stopping him from sharing details.
So will Aspinall finally get his shot?
Or will the title — and the division — remain in limbo?
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Indian Express
41 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Should Gukesh rue the missed chance to win title or take heart that he beat Carlsen and Arjun in classical chess in Norway?
After two weeks of pulling rabbits out of the hat and grinding his way to wins even when he was in worse positions from the start of games, there were no more rabbits left to be found for Gukesh Dommaraju. The 19-year-old world champion had started the final round of the Norway Chess tournament with a realistic chance of winning the title, starting just 0.5 points behind leader Magnus Carlsen. But he ended the tournament in third spot, after losing the round 10 game to USA's Fabiano Caruana, who pipped him to second spot in the standings, behind title winner Magnus Carlsen. It was a gripping end to a tournament that had been billed as the first Carlsen vs Gukesh clash in classical chess since the Indian teenager's coronation as world champion. In what was one of the most dramatic days of chess this year, Gukesh's final game against Caruana was a perfect highlight reel of his whole tournament in Stavanger: he started off worse than his opponent, then through sheer tenacity found some incredible resources to gain an edge, and then found himself in the clutches of time trouble. While he ended third in the standings, the event saw Gukesh beat Magnus Carlsen and Arjun Erigaisi for the first time in classical chess. The win over Carlsen was sweeter for more reasons than one: after defeating the world champion from India, Carlsen had posted 'You come for the king, you better not miss' — a line from HBO's popular series The Wire. Gukesh's second, Grzegorz Gajewski, had also told Indian media: 'As a world champion, he keeps facing these comments that, 'ok, you're the world champion only because Magnus didn't play. You know, you try not to hear those comments. But then you lose to him, and then you lose to him again, and that's not a bit pleasant.' Those first-ever wins over Carlsen and Arjun notwithstanding, Gukesh will be smarting. This is, after all, the second classical tournament since he became world champion in December last year — the first being the Tata Steel tournament at the start of the year in Wijk aan Zee — where he has been within touching distance of winning the title coming into the final round and then letting it slip. Gukesh's desperation to beat Caruana and win the title was apparent early on. He started to take risks in the game on Friday from as early as move 4 — playing 4.h6, to signal his intent to fight for the title. Caruana, who also had a chance to win the title, was not about to be left behind. Right after Gukesh castled long, the American's b pawn marched down the board (14…b4) towards the black king. By the 17th move, Gukesh had 30 minutes lesser on his clock compared to the American. Caruana also had an edge in the game as per the eval bar. At multiple times at this event Gukesh has been in trouble due to the time control used at this event — two hours with no increments and then 10 seconds added from move 41. By the 34th move from both players, the American had surged ahead as per the eval bar. At this stage, Gukesh had an additional pawn and a rook while the American had a knight and a bishop still on the battlefield. Carlsen, meanwhile, was struggling on the adjoining board against Arjun. A win for Arjun against the Norwegian would have meant that Gukesh could win the title with just a draw in the classical portion against Caruana. Gukesh was under massive time trouble by the 45th move, his time having trickled down to 15 seconds. That's when he got a lifeline as Caruana blundered with 47.f4. This left Gukesh's pawn on the d file to make a run to promote to a queen. 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'You can see in certain games or in parts of the game that Gukesh and Arjun are far behind myself, Fabiano and Hikaru Nakamura. But we're also the very best players in the world. They're not supposed to be our equals in every part of the game. The fact that Gukesh can actually fight for tournament victory despite having so many bad positions, like he will probably not be happy with himself. But it is encouraging. It's typical. That's what kids do.' (The writer is in Stavanger at the invitation of Norway Chess) Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
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Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
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