Veteran boxing commentator Teddy Atlas believes Jon Jones owes it to both the sport and the fans to step up and defend his UFC heavyweight title.
Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) has competed only once since capturing the heavyweight belt by submitting Ciryl Gane in March 2023, and he has repeatedly dismissed calls to face the division’s interim champion, Tom Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC).
While UFC President Dana White has reassured fans that a unification bout between Jones and Aspinall will eventually take place, Jones’ inactivity has become a growing source of frustration for the British interim titleholder.
Legendary boxing analyst Teddy Atlas weighed in on the situation this week during an interview with Slingo.
"Jon Jones has been inactive in spots in his career," Atlas said. "There's no doubt about it, and you could say, well, now you are keeping the title hostage. Yeah, I'll use a strong word, because that's where you're going. And again, I think there's two different things here. One is personally as a competitor, as a champion. That word invokes more than just the ability to fight.
"It invokes how you behave, how you carry yourself, what you believe in. And he's a champion. I believe he's a real champion. He always has been. He always behaves like one, so I think that you do have a personal obligation to (behave like a champion and) kind of deal with that. Then (you have to) deal with what comes with being a champion – you've got to give someone else a chance to get what you had a chance to get within a certain period."
Aspinall recently became the longest-reigning interim champion in UFC history—and with Jon Jones currently in Russia filming a reality TV show alongside Nate Diaz, there’s no indication that reign will end anytime soon.
"But then comes the other thing. What are the rules?" Atlas continued. "What are the enforcements? What are the mechanisms in place in this sport, in this business? What are the rules, and are they being enforced? And if they're not being enforced, and they're not being obliged by, they're not being lived up to or paid attention to, then you know what the repercussions are. There has to be an enforcement part of those rules. You can't have rules if there's no enforcement of those rules. I mean, what's the sense of having rules?"
