Jon Anik would prefer divisional meritocracy, and the result of the upcoming Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic heavyweight title fight could muddy the waters even more.
Jones and Miocic headline Saturday’s UFC 309 pay-per-view card with Jones putting his title on the line for the first time. Since Jones’ octagon absence, Tom Aspinall has won and defended the interim heavyweight title — historically suggesting that he should be next in line for a shot to unify the titles.
While the fan base would love to see Jones face Aspinall, “Bones” has continued to no-sell Aspinall, and instead focused his attention on planting seeds for a champ vs. champ fight with light heavyweight title holder Alex Pereira. Anik was asked about the situation days away from the promotion’s return to Madison Square Garden.
“Well, certainly it stands to reason that Alex ‘Poatan’ may be the bigger money fight,” Anik told MMA Fighting. “It may not be the fight that has the greater fan appetite, but maybe it is. ‘Poatan’ versus Jon Jones is absolutely enormous, right? But there are a lot of us that operate as true, die hard sports fans in a meritocracy in our brains and just doesn’t sit well with this interim champion who has already defended the title idling or sitting pat, especially when you look at how good Tom Aspinall is across every aspect of mixed martial arts.
“But what is Jon Jones’ net worth? What is Stipe Miocic’s net worth? What if your financial advisor might tell you you need to retire — because I can assure you I’m not retiring — in terms of what you actually need? And so Jon Jones fighting Tom Aspinall or Alex, what does he make? $15 million? Is that worth it? Is that worth risking the 0? I don’t know, but if Jon Jones is worth $25-$30 million and it stands to reason, there are a lot of opportunities for him to make money beyond fighting, I don’t know. If you were his manager, would you tell him to risk the O and legacy because he should fight Tom, because Tom’s got the interim belt and Tom’s the f*cking man? I don’t know that you do that.
“You can be sure... well, I shouldn’t say this, but I would submit to you that for Dana White and Hunter Campbell, they would much rather make a Jon Jones-Tom Aspinall fight than inject Alex ‘Poatan into’ the equation. But Jon Jones does have status as the greatest mixed martial arts athlete of all time,. so if he wants to fight ‘Poatan,’ I’d imagine, promotionally, you would listen.”
Anik will call the action with Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier — who has had multiple fights with both headliners over his hall of fame career — and understands why Miocic is a massive underdog in the former champ’s first fight in nearly four years.
But what if Miocic goes into The World’s Most Famous Arena and regains the heavyweight title? Anik understands how surprising that could be for a lot of fight fans to see, but also believes that if the Cleveland native pulls this off, perhaps he’d stick around to give Aspinall is opportunity to beat a legend of the game.
“This is the fight game, right? I mean, Belal Muhammad now has a life-threatening injury, and had that happened during his training camp for Leon Edwards, he probably never gets that undisputed championship opportunity,” Anik said. “So, yes, it’s crazy to sort of think about the prospects for Tom Aspinall, no matter who wins this fight. I will say to you if Stipe Miocic wins this fight — and you have me thinking about how I would cap it, were he to do so — but if Stipe Miocic wins this fight, I think he will fight Tom Aspinall. And if it’s a relatively quick fight, maybe in short order to try to realize that payday, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Stipe want to make one title defense against Tom Aspinall and then ride off into the sunset.
“But I don’t know without having sat down with these individuals and if you think Stipe is going to be wicked forthcoming, then you’ve never met the man, so we’ll see how it all plays out.
“I just feel pretty convicted in saying that Tom Aspinall is going to realize financial freedom for his family, hopefully for generation, and just needs his opportunity. But man, it’s a tough world for a lot of these fighters. When you get very close to the top, sometimes you have to wait forever and sometimes you feel like it’s never going to come.”
Regardless of the result, and how things may go on Saturday night in the Big Apple, one thing is for sure: This fight can’t happen soon enough to get the heavyweight division, hopefully, moving in the right direction.
As Anik things about how things can play out, he has a tough time truly grasping how both guys can look after significant layoffs.
“Well, I don’t try to get too predictive in some part because I am a play-by-play announcer, but how do you really predict what you’re gonna see out of both of these athletes?,” Anik said. “The sample size for Jon Jones at heavyweight is small, and Stipe Miocic last competed against Francis Ngannou when he was 38 and he is now 42 years of age.
“Now, one thing I can tell you with sitting down with Stipe in a fighter meeting is that he’s done everything in his power to have the best cardiovascular base possible and put himself in the best position to win this fight. I do think it stands to reason if the fight is contested early on the feet that Stipe can land some shots and look better than whatever the betting line suggests he is. I mean, I was talking to some of my contemporaries, I think two years ago when this fight was first inked and I was like, ‘Man, Stipe a +290 against any man?’ And they’re just like, ‘Dude, he’s fighting Jon Jones who is not any man,’ and I guess that is true.
“And so I think Stipe at 42 is not like a handicapper’s dream, but what kind of training camp has preceded this fight for Stipe? What kind of training camp has Jon Jones had? I can’t wait to sit down with these two individuals in the fighter meeting. But yes, this fight needs to happen in the worst possible way. We need Nov. 16. We need clarity and finality and a result when it comes to these two absolute legends.”
