Without saying a word, Jon Jones made his feelings known after UFC 321.
It has been a long time coming for Tom Aspinall, who spent over a year pushing for a fight with the man widely considered the best MMA fighter ever.
‘Bones’ picked up a bit of stick for steering clear of the bout. Some called him a ‘duck’ even before he gave up his heavyweight title and stepped away from fighting.
Embracing the criticism, Jones updated his Instagram profile picture to a sunglasses-wearing rubber duck, which proudly sported a UFC belt until Saturday night.
Jon Jones mocks Tom Aspinall after UFC 321 no contest
Aspinall’s reign as undisputed heavyweight champion began with a frustrating no-contest. A first-round double eye poke from Ciryl Gane in the main event at UFC 321 forced him to stop fighting.
Jones responded to the result with a small update to his profile picture, adding an eyepatch to the duck after the Briton was hospitalised with a possible eye injury.
His pointed jab at Aspinall drew varied reactions from UFC fans.
One fan posted: “He is right, he is a cowardly chicken,” while another added: “Trolling the guy that you ducked is funny work.”
Somebody else remarked, “Still ducked fighting him.”
Another user simply laughed, posting: “LMAOOOOOOO.”
Others backed Jones’ move, as one person wrote: “Jon Jones COOKED him.”
Another commented: “Owned that quitter.”
Dana White’s rematch plan
Dana White has confirmed plans for an immediate rematch between Aspinall and Gane after their first meeting ended in a no-contest due to an eye poke.
Speaking after the fight, the UFC CEO shared what many fans were thinking:
“I feel the way everybody feels,” the UFC CEO said after his latest pay-per-view main event ended in a no-contest.
“Great showing, s—-y ending, you know? I think that after the Jones fight, a lot of people wrote Ciryl Gane off, he looked damn good tonight… It was good, it looked like we were in for a few rounds, and it was going to be a good fight.”
When questioned about a potential rematch, White’s response was:
“Total pain in the a– but yeah… It’s unfortunate it ended the way that it did, and yes, I think that there probably will be a lot more interest in the rematch after they say, you know, [Gane] had Tom bloodied up and Tom didn’t want to continue in the fight.
“So the rematch is very interesting… Right here, right now, being honest – I never do this when it comes to talking about what the next fight is going to happen – the rematch is what makes sense.”
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