Which hurts Jon Jones legacy if it does? Losing to Stipe or Aspinall?

[snaportap21]

What an extraordinarily stupid thing to say. 'Weakest division'? Who wins a fight between Aspinall and Pantoja?

You're brain has been rotted from 'P4P' fantasy nonsense. HW is the only division that actually matters. That's where the best fighter is established - the actual best fighter in reality, not in 'but what if everyone weighed the same' make believe land.

Of course LHWs can also find success at HW - because they are just HWs who cut weight. But you don't prove you're the best at LHW.

HW is easily the most shallow division in the ufc. when people like Derrick Lewis are challenging for the belt it’s ridiculous to call lhw the minor leagues when the skill level needed to compete at HW is vastly lower.

 

[World eater]

He can lose 10 in a row, it will always boil down to ped use. No amount of loses will erase those wins.

 

[El Fernas]

Every champ that has fought too long has eventually lost to the new guy, losing to Stipe looks worst as that cant "age" anymore, Aspinall beating Jones and them proceeding to dominate HW makes Jones look better as he lost to a good fighter just way younger.

 

[Shay Brennan]

He has just one win at HW, what's there to ruin?
Not to mention the quality of that win.

Jon's legacy is at LHW.

 

[Goutfather]

if he loses to stipe, it would pretty much ruin his legacy. the amount of khabib fans saying "the goat is the fighter who never lost" would reach intolerable levels.

 

[RonDante]

It would definitely be worse to lose to stipe, he’s less well rounded than Tom, he’s been out of his prime for many years at this point, he hasn’t fought in something like 3 years almost. It would hurt his ego aswell cause DC knocked him out so if jones loses it will hurt him

Please, please can someone clarify this cause I swear it actually happened, I remember stipe walking into MSG at 295 with a cane. Did this actually happen? I’m not joking that’s what I remember

 

[OldBoy91]

Not fighting Aspinall hurts his legacy more than losing to him does.

 

[Mind Mine]

There isn’t much else Jones can reasonably be expected to do in his career. Win or lose he retires with the greatest resume the UFC has seen in your head or he will never be greatest in your head. Neither matters to me how you feel but it’s over. Maybe he gets clipped and loses on his current fights. Maybe he doesn’t. I highly doubt he stays around long enough to change his current standing much

 

[IsNormal]

If Stipe somehow wins and looks great, somehow I feel people would go "Yeah he was always my friend"

With Aspinall ... people are SO sure right now he's the future that they aren't considering that if he loses 3 in a row he might be lumped in with everyone else who's had a meteoric rise and then flopped - like Volkan or Reyes.

Sure though, if Aspinall beats Jon he would be seen as a real deal. (But depends on how. If it's a shitty performance but he still snags a win he could get hate over it)

 

[Striker Fox]

It's known that both Stipe and Jones are already washed, so either guy getting dominated won't mean anything

 

[AfroBanana]

Losing to Serra or Hendo……

He’s kind of past the point of his legacy being tarnished because he’s far ahead of the game. Even with a loss he’s the guy someone has to chase and try to pass in all divisions.

He doesn’t have any of the embarrassing loses and moments everyone else has. If he say loses to Tom in his late 30’s @ HW it’s just a natural end game to his career.

Now if he goes to KSW and gets his head boxed off by a Fabio Maldonado or something that’s embarrassing. Isn’t he around the same age Fedor was when that happened?

Losing to old Stipe is still less embarrassing than what all the other GOATs had happen. The only exception is Khabib who left too early and was way too inactive in the UFC to be in the overall GOAT discussion. He’s never been humiliated like Fedor, Spider, GSP, Aldo, etc. Tbh Mighty Mouse never had a humiliating loss either.

Jon can afford a loss at this point and still is ahead of the rest and has less embarrassing moments. Do you really think he will tarnish his legacy worse than Fedor and Spider? Losing to Stipe or Tom still isn’t as bad as tapping with a second left, losing to Serra (despite avenging those). Stipe is still the UFC’s HW GOAT and lost to a guy he’s 1-1 with and people consider pretty good in NNN.

Losing at this point just puts a mark on his HW run and of course Stipe probably would be the worse of the two based on the current perception of fans “he’s 50 he’s 48”.

If GSP had Jon levels of hate he would have been roasted much more for not fighting any killers @MW. He himself waited to fight a 40 year old.

 

[Otto!]

His losses to USADA hurt him more.

 

[VAfan]

eh, there's an option missing in the poll? loss to either guy hurts legacy?

and i think it does. losing to stipe is losing to an old man, losing to aspinall means run at HW tarnished and loss of undefeated status and a dent in terms of the GOAT conversation. and he knows this, which is why he's holding out for the only fight he's pretty much sure to win.

 

[J'Ghasta]

Honestly I have Stipe beating him. Matches well stylistically.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

Stipe's last win was mere months into COVID.

 

[Elvis.]

People dislike him , either one would become then exclamation point at the end of his career that people will always reference to discredit him along with his ped use

 

[GreenGorilla]

I am predicting that Jones will finally fight and defeat Miocic, then, hearing all the challenges from Aspinall, and the MMA community saying he's ducking, he will fight and defeat the young Brit and retire the unchallenged GOAT! The SHERDOG community will then say Aspinall was overrated, and Jones is still a cheat and a bum.

That would be the most insane timeline, as much as I tote the guys skill he is still a POS so maybe a KO would be a fitting send off for the Villain of MMA but honestly compared to most other highly skilled psychos (Tyson,Hari maybe Conor) he had a pretty good longevity to his career people who sniff like him and are psychos usually crash out completely at a younger age than Jones is right now.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

Stipe will be around 42 and away from competition for well over 3 years by the time they fight. I'd be reluctant to favor Stipe vs anyone in the top 5, maybe even top 10.

Losing to him is a definite blemish

 

[LiQuiD42]

Jon loses to neither and retires from the UFC undefeated.

 

[Fight Professor]

Jones losing to Tom would just mean the division is moving on. Jones has been in the UFC for 16 years and has been fighting the top fighters in his 2nd year. Nothing (fighting wise) is going to hurt his legacy but a 2nd win at the heavier division will make it more legendary.

Fedor started to lose after 10 years in MMA and was having trouble with Maldonado at 15 years. GSP has been in the UFC for 9 years during the Hendricks fight.

Hendo probably had the longest career fighting top fighters in Rings, PRIDE and UFC from 1998 to 2016. But his record was 3-7 in the last 4 of the 18 years.