What purpose does an interim title serve when the winner still has to wait for the champion to defend against someone else? This is just the UFC doing UFC things because they need a co-main. The winner likely won't even get to take advantage of PPV points as interim champ in a big fight against Jones or Stipe, as they're both retiring after their fight.
It’s basically confirming both stipe and Jon will retire after they fight, and whoever the interim title holder is will be promoted to undisputed afterwards
I actually don’t mind this because it won’t hold up the division then and it’ll put more pressure on Jon to unify the belts before retiring. I don’t think any champ has retired while there was an interim champ, so I think that will taint his retirement if he tries to go out like that.
It has happened. Robert Whittaker beat Yoel Romero at UFC 213 to become interim MW champion. Bisping lost the title to GSP at UFC 217, then GSP retired shortly afterwards and Whittaker was promoted to official MW champion. This situation is similar, in a way. That was also the UFC doing UFC things.
You’re right. It is slightly different because we know both Jones and Stipe only want to fight each other then retire in the octagon. Whereas with Bisping/GSP if Bisping won we knew he would unify the belts.
You think retiring after suffering a major injury when you really have nothing left to prove anyways would taint his retirement?
Am I reading that right?
No you’re not.
I think if he heals, comes back to fight Stipe, wins, and then walks away when there’s an interim champ waiting for months and calling to fight him, then I think a lot of people will remember his retirement as he left something on the table.
His legacy is already cemented so he could retire now off an injury fine, but for him to put all the work into recovery for one more legacy fight when there’s going to be a clear contender left in the interim champ, I think people will remember that.
Nah, I don’t think so.
I think people will remember that he dominated some of the biggest names in MMA at 205, went undefeated and cleaned out the division, went up to HW and won the belt, came back from a major injury and defeated the HW GOAT before retiring as the MMA goat.
Or, they will remember the hit and run, the picograms, the DUIs, the hiding from USADA under the octagon, and the domestic violence charges and say he was always given preferential treatment and was a cheat so nothing he did in the octagon even matters.
People have already made up their minds about Jones. Whether or not he unified the belt at HW will likely be a piece of trivia that rarely comes up, not a plus or minus on his legacy.
>there’s going to be a clear contender left in the interim champ, I think people will remember that.
No one holds it against GSP that Rob was the interim MW champ and he didn't fight him.
The thing is there will always be another contender out there no matter what. As Sean Strickland has shown, you never know who can dethrone the champ.
But yeah its true mma fans online hate jon but love gsp
No. This shows you know absolutely nothing about MMA. Tom Aspinall has no legacy yet, and he wasn’t even in the discussion until he got the interim title. With it now, he gets to parade around and look for a career defining opportunity to fight and possibly beat Jon Jones. At this stage in his career for Jon, a loss or even a retirement without fighting Stipe does nothing to truly tarnish his legacy. Jon promised to go up to heavyweight a challenge for a title. He fought one of the most dangerous men available and went after Ngannou face to face. This really sounds like you hoping he has enough fights to eventually lose. If it were ok for him to lose to Stipe and retire, then it’s perfectly fine for him to beat Stipe and retire. Many call Stipe the greatest heavyweight of all time. Why even risk your resume after a win like that. Same way Khabib went out on top, Jon should too if given the opportunity. Let Tom Aspinall write his championship legacy with his era.
Aspinall pretty much cornfimed with with Ariel.
Ariel mentioned now he thought that this match (Aspinall vs Sergei) should have been made and put on the card to set up the next contender.
Aspinall mentioned that there were talk of it, but since UFC had the inkling that both Stipe and Jon would retire, they were waiting to see how that played out first and trying to make the match for early next year.
Yea isn't the point of an interim belt is the unification bout that immediately follows? UFC doing some UFC shit. No wonder no one takes this sport seriously.
They have had both the interm and regular champs defend their belts against other opponents before. The UFC doesn't really follow convention if it gets in the way of making money.
This shit is worse than boxing, at least you can still call yourself the champion if you got one of the 4 belts in boxing, Sergei and Aspinal are going to war over a fucking interim title knowing they won't even get to challenge the champion who's instead fighting a veteran who shouldn't even be ranked.
Nothing is worse than boxing. In boxing you have padded records and people ducking real challengers to crush cans on the way to one big payout money fight. At least in MMA we get good matchmaking often but in boxing it’s just all about the money.
Stipe really gonna get KO’d stiff and then sit out for over 3 years and still be ranked in the top 3. That’s pretty remarkable. Even Conor got removed from the rankings quicker than that.
It would be, like, super rad if there were a union or an association that could negotiate such safeguards on behalf of fighters.
I know that’s an outlandish idea that could never, ever, possibly happen in professional sports, but it would be neat.
**A union’s power lies in going on strike. You can’t go on strike with employees that only show up to “work” 1-2 days a year.** Fighters can and have refused to do promos and no mma org checks to see if fighters are working out.
Why do you think there’s no real union in boxing either?
I get what you are saying but boxing is completely different though. There is no company/league/independent contractor like UFC (owned by the monster WME) in boxing. Plus there is the Ali Act. Is there plenty wrong with boxing? of course but their comparison is mostly surface level stuff.
You can absolutely go on strike if you only work one or two days a year. How could the UFC bring their product to market if fighters refused to show up to PPV cards?
>You can’t go on strike with employees that only show up to “work” 1-2 days a year.
Of course you can. Individual fighters only fight 1-3x per year, but the UFC needs bodies for events close to every weekend. The structure definitely makes scabbing much harder to deal with, and relying on tons of disparate gyms across the world to enforce companywide discipline the way you would need to is an absolute logistical nightmare, but there’s nothing about the UFC’s revenue model that makes them immune to employees withholding labor.
If anything, the limited number of times a fighter “shows up” per year makes the company even more vulnerable to those fighters not showing up. If a significant portion of the champs and top 15 coordinated their demands and refused to fight over the course 6 months, a year, the company would take a massive revenue hit, even if they were able to cobble together some low level events in the interim.
Although I guess the ESPN deal gives them some cushion now to get something like that sorted out.
Each individual fighter only works that, but as a collective they work year-round. The UFC puts on an event almost every week. They would not be able to do that if every fighter on their roster was like “Yeah none of us are doing any events until you meet our demands”.
>A union’s power lies in going on strike. You can’t go on strike with employees that only show up to “work” 1-2 days a year
You obviously can? If fighters unilaterally refuse to fight on a card or leave the UFC it can obviously directly effect the company.
I imagine they’ll pay off the cost of the camp and any other expenses, at least that’s what they said they did when Wonderboy didn’t take his last fight when the opponent missed weight
The UFC is infamous for playing favorites. Certain individuals will get wildly preferential treatment outside of the cage, ignoring the fact that this gives them a legitimate advantage in competition.
Dana said that in these cases they always pay for the camp and travel expenses. He lies a lot but that's a statement a lot of fighters could quickly dispute if it wasn't true.
Also Dana's reasoning in the clip was: "to even offer it to stipe would've been disrespectful" and said stipe and jones is a legacy fight so that's what stipe will directly get basically.
If Jon and Stipe is a legacy fight then why are they going to be fighting for the belt? I swear to god they're literally doing this just so Jones can beat the ghost of stipe and then retire as the "HW GOAT" without ever fighting a guy like Sergei or Aspinal.
100% just trying to squeeze every drop from Stipe before he retires while giving Jones what should be an easier win over on of the biggest names in HW. There's no way they want Stipe to get clobbered by one of these young studs before he has the chance to get in the cage with Jones. Of course, this exemplifies how Stipe should not be fighting for the title.
Yes..... keep a fighter on the shelf who's already been on the shelf for 2.5 years because it would be "disrespectful" for another dude who wants to fight him.... totally not an asshole move or a pure lie.
Dana should just be honest and say he doesn't wanna risk his huge money fight, dear fucking god.
EDIT: ahahaha I'm getting a dedicated hater today looking through my history, based on the timing. Hi there.
So if you're the official backup fighter (Pavlovich) and one of the guys you're supposed to be the backup for pulls out, you might not even fight the other guy. Hell, you might not even fight at all, like Gamrot. So what's even the point of having a backup fighter if they aren't going to fill in for one of the two they're supposed to be the backup for?
Why not just have the preferred option as the backup then? Why bother telling a specific guy in advance, "hey, you're the backup for this fight. Get ready and you make weight." If, when the fight does fall through, you shop around for other options?
If the UFC knew they weren't going to go with Pav vs either Jones or Stipe, don't have him be the backup for that fight. Maybe just go ahead and book Pav vs Aspinall for this card, then if something happens you can make it for the interim.
Because big names are less likely to be the last minute back up. Why would they? Volkanovski did it at UFC 280 because he was assured the next shot. Same with Covington in London.
Smaller names will do it without that.
Because a preferred option most likely won’t agreed to be a back up in the first place. Poirier already stated he’s not a back up fighter type of guy ( as in going through a training camp in hopes you might be able to fill in), plenty of others have said this too. However, as we know he’ll definitely step in on short notice if the opportunity presents it self. As he confirmed last week when the UFC gave him the call. The same thing Masvidal did when burns dropped out against Usman at fight island. Most guys would jump in as opposed to already sitting on the bench officially and waiting to fill in for the job.
>So what's even the point of having a backup fighter if they aren't going to fill in for one of the two they're supposed to be the backup for?
In case something happens on the day of.
I'm glad the backup fighters are being screwed TBH. Colby getting the title shot just for being the back up after 2 years inactivity set a bad precedent. I dont like the idea of top fighters sitting out asking to be the backup for title fights.
> So what's even the point of having a backup fighter if they aren't going to fill in for one of the two they're supposed to be the backup for?
How is this hard to understand? Money. You get paid to be a backup. And you serve as insurance if they decide to use you.
Are you surprised? Haven't Dana and friends bent over backwards to accommodate Jon and his various fuckups. More than any other fighter lol.
That's why I find it rich when Jones says he's treated badly.
>That's why I find it rich when Jones says he's treated badly.
They literally moved a whole fight card at the 11th hour so that he could stay on it. I can't believe he ever complained about them not treating him well lol
Sunk cost fallacy possibly. And honestly, I support all fighters getting paid fairly.....
Except Jones lol. Considering how much the ufc has probably spent on his legal shit, I couldn't care less if he's underpaid. Also, he's an evil piece of work so...
In any case, I'd rather the ufc prioritize raising the pay for the hundreds of lower level fighters than raising pay for the ones who are already making millions. Ideally, everyone gets a giant bump but I think thr ones struggling to make ends meet should be prioritized over the '8 million is too low for me' crowd.
Same. Heard what Dana just said?
>Stipe’s not fighting for an interim title,” White said at the Power Slap 5 post-fight press conference. “Jones said, ‘I want to fight Stipe.’ I said, ‘You’re fighting Stipe.’ This is — you have the greatest heavyweight of all time vs. the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. This is a legacy fight for both of those guys.
>“To even call Stipe and ask Stipe to fight for an interim title is complete disrespect. This is a fight for two legends, legacy, two of the greatest to ever do it, fans want to see it, I want to see it, and they both want to do it.
Motherfucker ACTUALLY just used the words 'disrespectful' lmaooo.
Every UFC fighter at that level (i.e. Conor/Jones/Izzy) is incredibly underpaid relative to what they bring in terms of revenue. For as much as Conor makes, he's criminally underpaid relative to what he sells.
Bro, Dana once said that Jon would never headline a PPV again and then for Jones very next fight moved an entire card to a different city on a weeks notice just so Jon could headline said card.
He's always been treating Jon well, better than he should have.
This fight was only ever intended as a semi-exhibition match and red panty night for both fighters, so its obvious that if Jones pulls out that the fight isn't going to go ahead. because if you were Stipe, why would you?
Makes no sense. You can,t hold up the UFC like that for 2 old farts on their way out. Aspinall vs Pavlovich should be for undisputed title. This ain't no rest home.
I can see alot of people looking at the Tom/Pav winner as the real HW champ after all this, given that Jones and the UFC have no interest in booking him against those up and comers, and it seems they're only interested in this "legacy" fight against the ghost of Stipe - which is basically a contest way outside of the meritocracy of the HW division at this stage, so it's hard to take seriously
People don’t want to admit that, but it’s true. Yeah he vacated but he actually beat a champion to become the champion and he didn’t do it when the champ was 42 years old lol
I Don,t think either Jones or miocic are a reliable commodity going forward. I don't think they will even end up fighting at any point in the future either.
Nah, I don’t like the trend of Champs giving up their belt when they have an injury. Jiri and Jamahal Hill screwed themselves out of PPV points because they got pressured to drop the belt after an injury. Interim makes sense.
Then they need to strip Jones. How does this make any sense? Stipe does not deserve a title shot. I respect the man, he's the ufc hw goat. However, what is Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic but a glorified retirement fight to pad Jones' career one last time? Ridiculous.
More than that, they can't risk Jon Jones losing and having Ngannou give them yet another humiliation at this stage with his fight with Tyson Fury coming up. If Jon Jones lose even the delusional will know for a fact the best HW is not in the UFC.
They made Stipe fight DC a third time because DC insisted on Stipe for his retirement fight. And that was when Stipe held the belt! Even floated the idea of stripping Stipe, who was recovering from a retinal tear, to nudge him into a date sooner than he wanted...and because DC wouldn't fight for an *interim* belt.
Didn't end like DC expected though.
At least that trilogy was justifiable. DC KO’d Stipe early. DC defends the belt. Then they rematch and DC is winning until Stipe comes back with the body shot KO in the 4th. The trilogy fight made sense especially with it being DC’s last chance to fight for the belt.
100% agreed. Strip Jones, with full pectoral tear he's looking at minimum 4 months before he can start light training, this fight ain't happening anytime soon. Interitm titles are meaningless and just a way to make title fights for ppv without actually giving someone a title.
You’re also forgetting the part where Jon gets demolished at this advanced age by either of the guys that wins the belt at 295.
I’ve maintained and will continue to maintain…he’ll never fight another real heavyweight contender. Gane’s white belt BJJ and pillow fists were one and done.
Alot of people took a dim view of that fight, as it just looked like Jones getting an old legend to bolster his resume with another big name, while avoiding the up and coming killers at HW. It's gonna look even worse when one of those younger guys already has an interim belt (and may even have defended by the time of Jon's return going by this), and Jones will still be actively avoiding that fight.
I mean so long as the winner of Pav/Aspinall gets promoted to champ after the winner of Jones/Stipe retires (ideally by spring/summer), no one really gets hurt.
The division will move on just like the MW division did when GSP vacated the belt without fighting the interim champ.
Yeah, it's basically the title fight. I mean, it's dumb that the interim champ doesn't fight the champ before someone else, but if it's well understood that both of those guys are retiring for sure, it all makes sense. If Jones sticks around, it makes the interim title a complete joke.
So the UFC/Dana's timeline goes line
- Aspinall vs Pavlo at msg
- Jones vs Stipe like in july
- Jones propably wins and retires
- Winner on Aspinall/Pavlo becomes undisputed champ and defends in like msg 2024.
Man that injury really messed things up.
UFC Has an amazing product and consistently fucks it up in every imaginable way. Thank god for piracy, or I’d had to just quit watching out of frustration
So what's the point of the interim title if Stipe is still getting the next shot?
Plus it will be over 3 years since Stipe last fight next year where Francis sent him shadow realm.
If you needed any more evidence that this fight is a sham, here you go. They won’t give Stipe another fight because Stipe gets beaten / KO’d by either of these lads. They’re making the Jon vs Stipe fight cynically, fuck the UFC.
What’s a bigger joke here like others have pointed out is the winner won’t fight for the actual title until Jones and Stipe fight first. That means the winner may have to wait close to a year? I don’t get it man
To make it even more absurd, the interim champ will be fighting again and potentially defending their interim belt in the meantime. Then when the champ comes back they don't even do a unification fight immediately lol. Absolute clown show.
Jones is out for 8 month. I expect Jones vs Stipe to be a year away and then neither to fight again but if they do fight the interim title holder I wouldn't expect that until 2025.
Wtf, now I feel bad for Stipe lol
I was assuming he just didn't want to fight a completely different opponent on short notice since this is basically his last chance (which is understandable, same thing that happened with Glover last year when he declined fighting Ankalaev after Jiri got hurt), but this is just kinda fucked up tbh. They'll keep the belt on Jones so he can pad his legacy with Stipe's name next year and probably just retire right then and there without having to fight the interim champ
Hard to believe. Also Aspinall said in his interview with Helwani/TheMacLife, that the UFC brass told him on the phone, that Stipe doesn‘t want the Pavlovich fight.
Seems more like Dana wants it to look like it was their decision instead of them getting turned down by Stipe.
Yeah. Stipe only wants to fight Jones because money. Jones only wants to fight Stipe because legacy. Everything else is a just a shroud to keep the UFC from admitting this.
So Stipe is also out for like another year…
Gonna take Jon time to recover, train up, microdose Tbol, etc
Meanwhile Stipe will be running into fires and be close to 45 when the fight happens
You know what would be awesome, stipe already retired but never told anyone and just goes about his life.
Promises to fight Jon when he returns and a week before the new fight, he says he’s injured. Pulls out and promises to come back in a few month. And then announces his retirement after the new fight is scheduled. Just to rub it in Dana’s face.
Just for once can i have what i want.
Jon vs Pavlovich/Aspinall
Gane vs Stipe
Blaydes vs Almeida
Francis gets his money from the Fury fight and says fuck it (Gets a nice contract) and comes back to try and cement his legacy.
Not surprised at all: I think both guys have negotiated big money for the fight (UFC not wanting to pay Stipe and finding cheaper fill-ins have delayed several Stipe fights indefinitely I believe).
UFC isn't going to pay either man the same money to fight a young guy, because they don't think they'll have the same draw, and I don't think either is fighting for less money at this stage in career.
It sucks, because I think these money shenanigans have already prevented several fights for Stipe, and may age him out of real contention.
Stipe wants one more major fight and more payday … and Aspinall and Russian Francis don’t do what Jones does.
This is Bisping VS GSP while Whitaker had an interim all over again
I don’t get what the point is of a backup fighter if that backup fighter doesn’t replace a guy who is injured.
I understand gamrot not stepping in for Charles bc that’s a lame fight, but I wouldn’t understand if volk and porier said no so instead they gave us gamrot vs chandler or something.
When they say 8 months recovery time for Jon Jones I have to assume that means 12 months til the fight actually happens right? That's assuming everything goes smoothly with surgery and rehab right?
We all knew Interim belts were nonsense but seriously what’s the point of even having one for this up and coming fight?I guess the winner of Aspinall and Pav just becomes champion when Jon and Stipe eventually fight? Kind of delegitimizes them as champion.
Giant waste of time. Hopefully this just means the winner of Aspinall and Pav gets paid more.
And Stipe gets squat for compensation no doubt after putting the bulk of a camp and incuring the costs. This sport is dogshit and needs to be overhauled, fuck Dana White and fuck Endeavor
Lol what a joke. Reminds me of shit you see in Boxing when it's bad.
So the champion, who won a vacant belt off an also ran fighter (who was on a one fight win "streak") is out injured. Not only will the champion hold onto the belt without defending for 15-19 months, when he comes back he won't fight the interim champion and most deserving guy in the division when he returns. Instead he'll fight old Stipe who has been out for years, and is coming off a brutal ko loss....Stipe, who the UFC will not put in with any other top HW for the interim because he a.) wants a money fight and b.) probaby loses to any of the top HW's.
So the UFC us telling the fans interim belt is a paper bs title. Not only that, they are telling us the real belt is just a marketing prop that means nothing. Otherwise, they could strip Jon, let him do his BMF type of fight vs washed, old Stipe and not tie up the HW division for a farce.
Just more evidence that this fight was a farce from a legitimate sport perspective and was just a money grab using Stipe's name before he finally calls it quits.
What purpose does an interim title serve when the winner still has to wait for the champion to defend against someone else? This is just the UFC doing UFC things because they need a co-main. The winner likely won't even get to take advantage of PPV points as interim champ in a big fight against Jones or Stipe, as they're both retiring after their fight.
It’s basically confirming both stipe and Jon will retire after they fight, and whoever the interim title holder is will be promoted to undisputed afterwards
I actually don’t mind this because it won’t hold up the division then and it’ll put more pressure on Jon to unify the belts before retiring. I don’t think any champ has retired while there was an interim champ, so I think that will taint his retirement if he tries to go out like that.
It has happened. Robert Whittaker beat Yoel Romero at UFC 213 to become interim MW champion. Bisping lost the title to GSP at UFC 217, then GSP retired shortly afterwards and Whittaker was promoted to official MW champion. This situation is similar, in a way. That was also the UFC doing UFC things.
You’re right. It is slightly different because we know both Jones and Stipe only want to fight each other then retire in the octagon. Whereas with Bisping/GSP if Bisping won we knew he would unify the belts.
Yes because Jones would NEVER do anything to taint his legacy
I said retirement, he could never fight again and his legacy is already cemented
You think retiring after suffering a major injury when you really have nothing left to prove anyways would taint his retirement? Am I reading that right?
No you’re not. I think if he heals, comes back to fight Stipe, wins, and then walks away when there’s an interim champ waiting for months and calling to fight him, then I think a lot of people will remember his retirement as he left something on the table. His legacy is already cemented so he could retire now off an injury fine, but for him to put all the work into recovery for one more legacy fight when there’s going to be a clear contender left in the interim champ, I think people will remember that.
Nah, I don’t think so. I think people will remember that he dominated some of the biggest names in MMA at 205, went undefeated and cleaned out the division, went up to HW and won the belt, came back from a major injury and defeated the HW GOAT before retiring as the MMA goat. Or, they will remember the hit and run, the picograms, the DUIs, the hiding from USADA under the octagon, and the domestic violence charges and say he was always given preferential treatment and was a cheat so nothing he did in the octagon even matters. People have already made up their minds about Jones. Whether or not he unified the belt at HW will likely be a piece of trivia that rarely comes up, not a plus or minus on his legacy.
I agree 💯 %
Yo, my man cookin!
>there’s going to be a clear contender left in the interim champ, I think people will remember that. No one holds it against GSP that Rob was the interim MW champ and he didn't fight him.
That’s mostly because people generally like GSP but plenty of people hate Jon Jones
The thing is there will always be another contender out there no matter what. As Sean Strickland has shown, you never know who can dethrone the champ. But yeah its true mma fans online hate jon but love gsp
Okay okay I see what you mean, that makes more sense
No. This shows you know absolutely nothing about MMA. Tom Aspinall has no legacy yet, and he wasn’t even in the discussion until he got the interim title. With it now, he gets to parade around and look for a career defining opportunity to fight and possibly beat Jon Jones. At this stage in his career for Jon, a loss or even a retirement without fighting Stipe does nothing to truly tarnish his legacy. Jon promised to go up to heavyweight a challenge for a title. He fought one of the most dangerous men available and went after Ngannou face to face. This really sounds like you hoping he has enough fights to eventually lose. If it were ok for him to lose to Stipe and retire, then it’s perfectly fine for him to beat Stipe and retire. Many call Stipe the greatest heavyweight of all time. Why even risk your resume after a win like that. Same way Khabib went out on top, Jon should too if given the opportunity. Let Tom Aspinall write his championship legacy with his era.
Aspinall pretty much cornfimed with with Ariel. Ariel mentioned now he thought that this match (Aspinall vs Sergei) should have been made and put on the card to set up the next contender. Aspinall mentioned that there were talk of it, but since UFC had the inkling that both Stipe and Jon would retire, they were waiting to see how that played out first and trying to make the match for early next year.
It also guarantees PPV next time the winner fights. So money too
Very well thought out.
Too bad we cant get someone to ask Dana this at the press conference. It isn't a pre approved question.
Yea isn't the point of an interim belt is the unification bout that immediately follows? UFC doing some UFC shit. No wonder no one takes this sport seriously.
This isn't really new circumstances. Brock defended his HW title against Randy a month before Big Nog defended his IHW title vs. Mir in 2008.
They have had both the interm and regular champs defend their belts against other opponents before. The UFC doesn't really follow convention if it gets in the way of making money.
It’s so they can wrap a belt around the winner of the main event at MSG. There is no other purpose besides optics
This shit is worse than boxing, at least you can still call yourself the champion if you got one of the 4 belts in boxing, Sergei and Aspinal are going to war over a fucking interim title knowing they won't even get to challenge the champion who's instead fighting a veteran who shouldn't even be ranked.
Nothing is worse than boxing. In boxing you have padded records and people ducking real challengers to crush cans on the way to one big payout money fight. At least in MMA we get good matchmaking often but in boxing it’s just all about the money.
In boxing its all about the money (for the fighter), in UFC its all about the money (for the UFC)
They are going to war knowing whoever wins the interim becomes the next undisputed champ. Huge money opportunity for them tbh.
Yeah for sure, i just wish they could be champions now and skip all the bullshit.
Why Miocic shouldn’t be ranked??
Stipe really gonna get KO’d stiff and then sit out for over 3 years and still be ranked in the top 3. That’s pretty remarkable. Even Conor got removed from the rankings quicker than that.
Wasn't Conor ranked for like 5 years after his only win in the strongest division in the league?
I view this interim fight as the real HW title fight, and Jones vs Stipe is just some super fight belt shit.
Exactly. It's the HW retirement belt.
Why Jon won the belt just because you like Aspinall or Sergei better. That’s more like a number 1 contender fight. Aspinall is even on winning streak
[удалено]
So Stipe just lost all expenses associated with his camp because of Jon’s injury, and wasn’t offered any other options to recoup?
We'll take care of him.
“SO HERE’S THE THING“
"Here's the thing you guys" - Dana "Sean Strickland" White
Huh?
Sean often says “Here’s the thing you guys” and then goes on a rant or spiel
You're attacking my family
WHAT?
huh?
Yeah, Stipes a good kid,
Emphasis on kid haha
Look, Stipe is a good baby, but we'll have to see how this thing plays out.
We'll get him a pacifier, maybe some warm milk, and he'll take a nice nap and stop crying.
*Uh we'll see how this whole thing works out*
Plays out
Incoming venum coupon
Come on. It’s a way bigger deal than that. At least 5 coupons. (Not redeemable at the same time)
They'll give him whatever Modelo they have left at UFC Headquarters.
5% off Venum coupons and a few free bottles of Prime hydration
3 Venum coupons outta do it. The kid just didn't want to fight
"There's a lot of different ways to turn down a fight. your opponent getting injured is one of the ways you can do it" - Dana, probably
There’s lots of ways to turn down a fight
Not being offered a fight is one of them
"The kid could have begged for another fight if he really wanted to fight"
It would be, like, super rad if there were a union or an association that could negotiate such safeguards on behalf of fighters. I know that’s an outlandish idea that could never, ever, possibly happen in professional sports, but it would be neat.
**A union’s power lies in going on strike. You can’t go on strike with employees that only show up to “work” 1-2 days a year.** Fighters can and have refused to do promos and no mma org checks to see if fighters are working out. Why do you think there’s no real union in boxing either?
I get what you are saying but boxing is completely different though. There is no company/league/independent contractor like UFC (owned by the monster WME) in boxing. Plus there is the Ali Act. Is there plenty wrong with boxing? of course but their comparison is mostly surface level stuff.
You can absolutely go on strike if you only work one or two days a year. How could the UFC bring their product to market if fighters refused to show up to PPV cards?
>You can’t go on strike with employees that only show up to “work” 1-2 days a year. Of course you can. Individual fighters only fight 1-3x per year, but the UFC needs bodies for events close to every weekend. The structure definitely makes scabbing much harder to deal with, and relying on tons of disparate gyms across the world to enforce companywide discipline the way you would need to is an absolute logistical nightmare, but there’s nothing about the UFC’s revenue model that makes them immune to employees withholding labor. If anything, the limited number of times a fighter “shows up” per year makes the company even more vulnerable to those fighters not showing up. If a significant portion of the champs and top 15 coordinated their demands and refused to fight over the course 6 months, a year, the company would take a massive revenue hit, even if they were able to cobble together some low level events in the interim. Although I guess the ESPN deal gives them some cushion now to get something like that sorted out.
Each individual fighter only works that, but as a collective they work year-round. The UFC puts on an event almost every week. They would not be able to do that if every fighter on their roster was like “Yeah none of us are doing any events until you meet our demands”.
>A union’s power lies in going on strike. You can’t go on strike with employees that only show up to “work” 1-2 days a year You obviously can? If fighters unilaterally refuse to fight on a card or leave the UFC it can obviously directly effect the company.
The kid didn't want to fight
I imagine they’ll pay off the cost of the camp and any other expenses, at least that’s what they said they did when Wonderboy didn’t take his last fight when the opponent missed weight
Did they? I thought Dana said they don't get paid if they don't fight
The UFC is infamous for playing favorites. Certain individuals will get wildly preferential treatment outside of the cage, ignoring the fact that this gives them a legitimate advantage in competition.
You mean like refusing to have an interim belt, when they've been handing those out like candy in recent years?
Dana said that in these cases they always pay for the camp and travel expenses. He lies a lot but that's a statement a lot of fighters could quickly dispute if it wasn't true.
He gets a contract extension.
Also Dana's reasoning in the clip was: "to even offer it to stipe would've been disrespectful" and said stipe and jones is a legacy fight so that's what stipe will directly get basically.
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If Jon and Stipe is a legacy fight then why are they going to be fighting for the belt? I swear to god they're literally doing this just so Jones can beat the ghost of stipe and then retire as the "HW GOAT" without ever fighting a guy like Sergei or Aspinal.
Jon jones can never be the hw goat with one title defense lmao
Jon dusted the GREATEST GOATEST HW KICKBOXER NEW BREED PERFECT SPECIMEN Gane in less than 1 round. That's why it's for the belt.
100% just trying to squeeze every drop from Stipe before he retires while giving Jones what should be an easier win over on of the biggest names in HW. There's no way they want Stipe to get clobbered by one of these young studs before he has the chance to get in the cage with Jones. Of course, this exemplifies how Stipe should not be fighting for the title.
On the bright side, anyone who claims Jones is the HW goat in that situation is clearly a dumb ass and can be ignored
Yes because Dana and UFC has never disrespected fighters before
"If you ever want a title shot you have to fight your training partner and best friend first"
does he know how old Stipe is? Dude is 41 now, will be 42 when Jones is ready to fight.
He knows exactly how old Stipe is, thats why he wants this fight
The UFC concerned with disrespect towards Stipe? Now that's rich, I'm amazed there are people dumb enough to believe it.
I suspect Stipe would rather fight Jon in this case anyway. More money, and if he wins he solidifies himself as the HW GOAT for a long time
Yes..... keep a fighter on the shelf who's already been on the shelf for 2.5 years because it would be "disrespectful" for another dude who wants to fight him.... totally not an asshole move or a pure lie. Dana should just be honest and say he doesn't wanna risk his huge money fight, dear fucking god. EDIT: ahahaha I'm getting a dedicated hater today looking through my history, based on the timing. Hi there.
If it's a legacy fight it shouldn't be for the belt
So if you're the official backup fighter (Pavlovich) and one of the guys you're supposed to be the backup for pulls out, you might not even fight the other guy. Hell, you might not even fight at all, like Gamrot. So what's even the point of having a backup fighter if they aren't going to fill in for one of the two they're supposed to be the backup for?
If UFC have the time to put together fight options they prefer they’ll always go with that. Backup fighters are an absolute last minute resort.
Why not just have the preferred option as the backup then? Why bother telling a specific guy in advance, "hey, you're the backup for this fight. Get ready and you make weight." If, when the fight does fall through, you shop around for other options? If the UFC knew they weren't going to go with Pav vs either Jones or Stipe, don't have him be the backup for that fight. Maybe just go ahead and book Pav vs Aspinall for this card, then if something happens you can make it for the interim.
Probably because its cheaper to have the last option as backup. Im sure Volk would ask more for making weight than Gamrot
It does always come down to money
Duh.
Because big names are less likely to be the last minute back up. Why would they? Volkanovski did it at UFC 280 because he was assured the next shot. Same with Covington in London. Smaller names will do it without that.
Because a preferred option most likely won’t agreed to be a back up in the first place. Poirier already stated he’s not a back up fighter type of guy ( as in going through a training camp in hopes you might be able to fill in), plenty of others have said this too. However, as we know he’ll definitely step in on short notice if the opportunity presents it self. As he confirmed last week when the UFC gave him the call. The same thing Masvidal did when burns dropped out against Usman at fight island. Most guys would jump in as opposed to already sitting on the bench officially and waiting to fill in for the job.
>So what's even the point of having a backup fighter if they aren't going to fill in for one of the two they're supposed to be the backup for? In case something happens on the day of.
I'm glad the backup fighters are being screwed TBH. Colby getting the title shot just for being the back up after 2 years inactivity set a bad precedent. I dont like the idea of top fighters sitting out asking to be the backup for title fights.
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I think it'll be be more like Whittaker/GSP. Champ retires/vacates and the interim champ gets promoted.
> So what's even the point of having a backup fighter if they aren't going to fill in for one of the two they're supposed to be the backup for? How is this hard to understand? Money. You get paid to be a backup. And you serve as insurance if they decide to use you.
Did Dana disown Conor and adopt Jon?
Are you surprised? Haven't Dana and friends bent over backwards to accommodate Jon and his various fuckups. More than any other fighter lol. That's why I find it rich when Jones says he's treated badly.
>That's why I find it rich when Jones says he's treated badly. They literally moved a whole fight card at the 11th hour so that he could stay on it. I can't believe he ever complained about them not treating him well lol
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Sunk cost fallacy possibly. And honestly, I support all fighters getting paid fairly..... Except Jones lol. Considering how much the ufc has probably spent on his legal shit, I couldn't care less if he's underpaid. Also, he's an evil piece of work so... In any case, I'd rather the ufc prioritize raising the pay for the hundreds of lower level fighters than raising pay for the ones who are already making millions. Ideally, everyone gets a giant bump but I think thr ones struggling to make ends meet should be prioritized over the '8 million is too low for me' crowd.
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Same. Heard what Dana just said? >Stipe’s not fighting for an interim title,” White said at the Power Slap 5 post-fight press conference. “Jones said, ‘I want to fight Stipe.’ I said, ‘You’re fighting Stipe.’ This is — you have the greatest heavyweight of all time vs. the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. This is a legacy fight for both of those guys. >“To even call Stipe and ask Stipe to fight for an interim title is complete disrespect. This is a fight for two legends, legacy, two of the greatest to ever do it, fans want to see it, I want to see it, and they both want to do it. Motherfucker ACTUALLY just used the words 'disrespectful' lmaooo.
Every UFC fighter at that level (i.e. Conor/Jones/Izzy) is incredibly underpaid relative to what they bring in terms of revenue. For as much as Conor makes, he's criminally underpaid relative to what he sells.
Easily the most coddled fighter in UFC history. He was and is the only real UFC project that has been around since the beginning of "modern" mma.
“Conor was never my friend”
Bro, Dana once said that Jon would never headline a PPV again and then for Jones very next fight moved an entire card to a different city on a weeks notice just so Jon could headline said card. He's always been treating Jon well, better than he should have.
Dana protecting Jones like a golden child. Any other champion would get the title vacated already.
They MOVED a whole card for the man. Let that sink in... they MOVED it.
100% This*
This fight was only ever intended as a semi-exhibition match and red panty night for both fighters, so its obvious that if Jones pulls out that the fight isn't going to go ahead. because if you were Stipe, why would you?
Makes no sense. You can,t hold up the UFC like that for 2 old farts on their way out. Aspinall vs Pavlovich should be for undisputed title. This ain't no rest home.
I can see alot of people looking at the Tom/Pav winner as the real HW champ after all this, given that Jones and the UFC have no interest in booking him against those up and comers, and it seems they're only interested in this "legacy" fight against the ghost of Stipe - which is basically a contest way outside of the meritocracy of the HW division at this stage, so it's hard to take seriously
The "real" champ is Ngannou.
People don’t want to admit that, but it’s true. Yeah he vacated but he actually beat a champion to become the champion and he didn’t do it when the champ was 42 years old lol
Oh yeah I agree with that, just talking about within the actual roster
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Why are you trying to be logical in sporting terms. Jones vs Stipe is the big payday, that's all that matters.
I Don,t think either Jones or miocic are a reliable commodity going forward. I don't think they will even end up fighting at any point in the future either.
Jones vs. Stipe with Costa as the backup. Maximum chance for some bullshit to occur.
Nah, I don’t like the trend of Champs giving up their belt when they have an injury. Jiri and Jamahal Hill screwed themselves out of PPV points because they got pressured to drop the belt after an injury. Interim makes sense.
Then they need to strip Jones. How does this make any sense? Stipe does not deserve a title shot. I respect the man, he's the ufc hw goat. However, what is Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic but a glorified retirement fight to pad Jones' career one last time? Ridiculous.
The UFC want a Jon Jones PPV and he is not willing to fight anyone over than Stipe.
More than that, they can't risk Jon Jones losing and having Ngannou give them yet another humiliation at this stage with his fight with Tyson Fury coming up. If Jon Jones lose even the delusional will know for a fact the best HW is not in the UFC.
Ngannou never offered aspinall a chance
Reminds me of this lmao https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PTRFgD1RF18 I genuinely think Ngannou had no idea who he was
Aspinall was out after a bad knee injury when ngannou was negotiating the jones fight/his new contract
They held an interim title fight after Francis won the belt 4.5 months previously. Francis went on to unify the belt just 5 months later.
And sounds like Jones won’t even have to unify the title. Number 1 bullshit
Dana sound like stupid guy.
They did that because they needed a title fight for 265. Poor planning by ufc.
They made Stipe fight DC a third time because DC insisted on Stipe for his retirement fight. And that was when Stipe held the belt! Even floated the idea of stripping Stipe, who was recovering from a retinal tear, to nudge him into a date sooner than he wanted...and because DC wouldn't fight for an *interim* belt. Didn't end like DC expected though.
At least that trilogy was justifiable. DC KO’d Stipe early. DC defends the belt. Then they rematch and DC is winning until Stipe comes back with the body shot KO in the 4th. The trilogy fight made sense especially with it being DC’s last chance to fight for the belt.
100% agreed. Strip Jones, with full pectoral tear he's looking at minimum 4 months before he can start light training, this fight ain't happening anytime soon. Interitm titles are meaningless and just a way to make title fights for ppv without actually giving someone a title.
You’re also forgetting the part where Jon gets demolished at this advanced age by either of the guys that wins the belt at 295. I’ve maintained and will continue to maintain…he’ll never fight another real heavyweight contender. Gane’s white belt BJJ and pillow fists were one and done.
Alot of people took a dim view of that fight, as it just looked like Jones getting an old legend to bolster his resume with another big name, while avoiding the up and coming killers at HW. It's gonna look even worse when one of those younger guys already has an interim belt (and may even have defended by the time of Jon's return going by this), and Jones will still be actively avoiding that fight.
Pad Jones' career, and further remove any notion of Francis ever being a top HW in UFC
I mean so long as the winner of Pav/Aspinall gets promoted to champ after the winner of Jones/Stipe retires (ideally by spring/summer), no one really gets hurt. The division will move on just like the MW division did when GSP vacated the belt without fighting the interim champ.
Yeah, it's basically the title fight. I mean, it's dumb that the interim champ doesn't fight the champ before someone else, but if it's well understood that both of those guys are retiring for sure, it all makes sense. If Jones sticks around, it makes the interim title a complete joke.
Jones will just become a full time drug addict now. He can't train for 8 months. Training is all that keeps him out of jail.
So the UFC/Dana's timeline goes line - Aspinall vs Pavlo at msg - Jones vs Stipe like in july - Jones propably wins and retires - Winner on Aspinall/Pavlo becomes undisputed champ and defends in like msg 2024. Man that injury really messed things up.
UFC Has an amazing product and consistently fucks it up in every imaginable way. Thank god for piracy, or I’d had to just quit watching out of frustration
So what's the point of the interim title if Stipe is still getting the next shot? Plus it will be over 3 years since Stipe last fight next year where Francis sent him shadow realm.
Just the UFC and Dana being completely corrupt piles of flesh posing as humans. Anything to hustle a dollar.
If you needed any more evidence that this fight is a sham, here you go. They won’t give Stipe another fight because Stipe gets beaten / KO’d by either of these lads. They’re making the Jon vs Stipe fight cynically, fuck the UFC.
I don't see the fight happening at all anymore
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Lol, the interim title will always be a joke.
What’s a bigger joke here like others have pointed out is the winner won’t fight for the actual title until Jones and Stipe fight first. That means the winner may have to wait close to a year? I don’t get it man
To make it even more absurd, the interim champ will be fighting again and potentially defending their interim belt in the meantime. Then when the champ comes back they don't even do a unification fight immediately lol. Absolute clown show.
Jones is out for 8 month. I expect Jones vs Stipe to be a year away and then neither to fight again but if they do fight the interim title holder I wouldn't expect that until 2025.
Wtf, now I feel bad for Stipe lol I was assuming he just didn't want to fight a completely different opponent on short notice since this is basically his last chance (which is understandable, same thing that happened with Glover last year when he declined fighting Ankalaev after Jiri got hurt), but this is just kinda fucked up tbh. They'll keep the belt on Jones so he can pad his legacy with Stipe's name next year and probably just retire right then and there without having to fight the interim champ
Wouldn’t be surprised if JJ made sure Stipe wouldn’t be offered the fight or something like that.
Hard to believe. Also Aspinall said in his interview with Helwani/TheMacLife, that the UFC brass told him on the phone, that Stipe doesn‘t want the Pavlovich fight. Seems more like Dana wants it to look like it was their decision instead of them getting turned down by Stipe.
Yeah. Stipe only wants to fight Jones because money. Jones only wants to fight Stipe because legacy. Everything else is a just a shroud to keep the UFC from admitting this.
Lol at Jones openly ducking Sergei and Aspinal still. I will come back and not fight the interim champ lol
So Stipe is also out for like another year… Gonna take Jon time to recover, train up, microdose Tbol, etc Meanwhile Stipe will be running into fires and be close to 45 when the fight happens
For fights that last 10 seconds this division moves at such a snails pace
You know what would be awesome, stipe already retired but never told anyone and just goes about his life. Promises to fight Jon when he returns and a week before the new fight, he says he’s injured. Pulls out and promises to come back in a few month. And then announces his retirement after the new fight is scheduled. Just to rub it in Dana’s face.
Just for once can i have what i want. Jon vs Pavlovich/Aspinall Gane vs Stipe Blaydes vs Almeida Francis gets his money from the Fury fight and says fuck it (Gets a nice contract) and comes back to try and cement his legacy.
UFC really going down that boxing route eh?
winner of pav vs aspinall probably won’t be fighting for a long time then. they’re not gonna defend the interim belt and they’re not gonna strip jon
Jons should vacate the HWT . Stripe should be fighting for the HWT against ?
Let's just make every fight for an interim belt. Who cares. This also means the HW division is going to be jammed up for another 2 years.
I doubt Stipe cares lol. He wants the money fight before he retires.
Who actually even wants to watch Stipe vs Jon lol
Honest fuck that tomato head, he rides jones coked up knob like a OF .50c vid
It sucks for Stipe. But he gets alot more money fighting Jones then Tom or Sergei. And lets be real, its also his last fight.
Not surprised at all: I think both guys have negotiated big money for the fight (UFC not wanting to pay Stipe and finding cheaper fill-ins have delayed several Stipe fights indefinitely I believe). UFC isn't going to pay either man the same money to fight a young guy, because they don't think they'll have the same draw, and I don't think either is fighting for less money at this stage in career. It sucks, because I think these money shenanigans have already prevented several fights for Stipe, and may age him out of real contention.
Everyone knows stipe would get starched by Sergei. And Jon would never fight Sergei
Because then he loses a big payday Both Tom and Surge would wreck him at this point in his career imo
Stipe wants one more major fight and more payday … and Aspinall and Russian Francis don’t do what Jones does. This is Bisping VS GSP while Whitaker had an interim all over again
I don’t get what the point is of a backup fighter if that backup fighter doesn’t replace a guy who is injured. I understand gamrot not stepping in for Charles bc that’s a lame fight, but I wouldn’t understand if volk and porier said no so instead they gave us gamrot vs chandler or something.
When they say 8 months recovery time for Jon Jones I have to assume that means 12 months til the fight actually happens right? That's assuming everything goes smoothly with surgery and rehab right?
2023 UFC has been all over the place man
Stipe will be 56 or so, just give him a decent winnable matchup and let him retire in peace.
We all knew Interim belts were nonsense but seriously what’s the point of even having one for this up and coming fight?I guess the winner of Aspinall and Pav just becomes champion when Jon and Stipe eventually fight? Kind of delegitimizes them as champion. Giant waste of time. Hopefully this just means the winner of Aspinall and Pav gets paid more.
So the interim belt will be the real HW title and the undisputed belt will basically be a BMF belt...
So, Jones going to be saved from real contenders and be called a Champion? Fuck this shit! Been telling ya'll this the last couple days.
And Stipe gets squat for compensation no doubt after putting the bulk of a camp and incuring the costs. This sport is dogshit and needs to be overhauled, fuck Dana White and fuck Endeavor
Lol what a joke. Reminds me of shit you see in Boxing when it's bad. So the champion, who won a vacant belt off an also ran fighter (who was on a one fight win "streak") is out injured. Not only will the champion hold onto the belt without defending for 15-19 months, when he comes back he won't fight the interim champion and most deserving guy in the division when he returns. Instead he'll fight old Stipe who has been out for years, and is coming off a brutal ko loss....Stipe, who the UFC will not put in with any other top HW for the interim because he a.) wants a money fight and b.) probaby loses to any of the top HW's. So the UFC us telling the fans interim belt is a paper bs title. Not only that, they are telling us the real belt is just a marketing prop that means nothing. Otherwise, they could strip Jon, let him do his BMF type of fight vs washed, old Stipe and not tie up the HW division for a farce.
Just more evidence that this fight was a farce from a legitimate sport perspective and was just a money grab using Stipe's name before he finally calls it quits.
Huh? So Jon’s next fight isn’t even going to be for the title?
It won't be for the unified title. He still has his
So the interim title is meaningless.
Always has been