Even if a potential fight between Tom Aspinall and Jon Jones never materializes in the octagon, the two heavyweight contenders continue their back-and-forth on social media.
Their online jabs escalated on Thursday when Aspinall shared a couple of videos playfully mocking Jones. In one clip, he teamed up with acclaimed Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner Craig Jones to parody Jon Jones` recent viral moment in Thailand, where he was seen riding a motorcycle while holding onto the driver`s hair.
In the parody video, Aspinall tells Craig to get off him, prompting Craig to humorously respond, “Sorry, it`s a Jones thing.”
The video quickly caught the attention of Jon Jones, who commented on the post with “Rent free,” accompanied by coconut and palm tree emojis, seemingly suggesting Aspinall is preoccupied with him.
Aspinall didn`t stop there. He also posted an edited video clip originally showing Jones playfully evading a confrontation. Aspinall inserted himself into the video as Jones`s potential opponent, adding subtitles to make it appear as though Jones is deliberately avoiding the interim UFC heavyweight champion.
While these social media exchanges are largely in good fun, they offer little comfort to fans who are eager to see Jones either defend his undisputed heavyweight title against Aspinall or vacate the belt to allow the division`s progression.
Jones initially secured the vacant heavyweight title by defeating Ciryl Gane following Francis Ngannou`s departure from the UFC. He was later slated to face Stipe Miocic before an injury sidelined him. Meanwhile, Aspinall claimed the interim title by beating Sergei Pavlovich and recently successfully defended it against Curtis Blaydes.
Despite a title unification bout being the clear next step for the heavyweight division, Jones has not publicly expressed any interest in facing Aspinall inside the cage.
