After UFC 321, Jon Jones only had words for Alex Pereira, not Tom Aspinall.
Saturday’s event in Abu Dhabi ended in a huge disappointment as heavyweight champion Aspinall was stabbed in the eye by Cyril Gane and was unable to continue. The match was ruled a no-contest and fans at the Etihad Arena booed the players.
To make matters worse for Aspinall, this was his first fight as the undisputed champion. When Jones retired with the heavyweight belt in June of this year, the UFC promoted Aspinall from interim to undisputed status, and a win over Gaen would have been a coronation for Aspinall, who had been eyeing a unification bout with Jones for more than a year.
Jones has since announced plans to come out of retirement and fight at the historic UFC White House event, tentatively scheduled for June 4th, but it’s clear he has no intention of coming back against Aspinall.
“Alex, I intend to bring the highest skill level to the White House,” Jones said on Twitter, referring to Pereira. “Thank you for the respect you showed me. Let’s dance.”
Pereira is currently in his second reign as UFC light heavyweight champion (Jones held the title for the better part of a decade before becoming heavyweight champion) and also holds the UFC gold medal at middleweight. He has made no secret that he wants to chase a third title at heavyweight and posted his reaction to Saturday’s main event on Instagram.
“Let’s make heavyweight great again,” Pereira wrote in the caption, along with a clip of him laughing as he watched the ending of UFC 321. Pereira previously said he was interested in facing Jones in a superfight.
Aspinall could not escape Jones’ attention, even though Jones did not speak to him directly. “Bones” changed his Instagram profile picture from a duck (a reference to Aspinall supporters criticizing Jones for avoiding the fight with Aspinall) to a duck wearing an eyepatch.