Jon Jones next move after UFC 309? Figuring out the price of risk

It was well over a year in the making, but at UFC 309 on Saturday night, Jon Jones finally crossed off Stipe Miocic on his things to do. With a galaxy of Republican luminaries sitting cageside (alongside Kid Rock) at Madison Square Garden, the heavyweight champion Jones reminded everyone of what a tyrant he can be come fight night.

And let’s be honest, that was far easier than most people thought it would be, and certainly easier than it was billed. He jabbed the 42-year-old Miocic from the suburbs of the Octagon, bewildering him with the speed in which he snapped fire. He took Miocic down with over three minutes to go in the first round and dropped elbows down on him like the most ruthless big game hunter going. He kicked his body like it was a big ol’ sack of Cleveland flour, the fatal blow a spinning kick to the midsection in the third round that shut down Miocic’s last lights in the fight game.

It was mean. Methodical. One might even say ritualistic. Miocic, who was the great distraction in this bit of stubborn matchmaking, was the sacrifice to a bigger payday. Jones even did the Donald Trump dance right afterward, perhaps one of the iciest moves since Johnny Walker tried the worm.

When Joe Rogan asked Jones what was next for him, whether it be retirement or a superfight with Alex Pereira or maybe unifying the belt against the (Voldemort Figure from Salford), Jones threw it back to the Big Man Upstairs, Jesus Christ, before alluding to a pending meeting with Benjamin Franklin and his army.

“As far as my future in the Octagon, I decided that maybe I will not retire,” he said to a loud ovation from the New Yorkers. “And that I have some conversations to have with Dana [White] and Hunter [Campbell], and we have some negotiating to do, and if everything goes right, maybe we’ll give you guys what you want to see.”

Asked to elaborate, Jon reiterated that he was expecting UFC CEO White to provide some avuncular warmth.

“You know, we know that we have options. I’m just going to see what Uncle Dana wants and what Uncle Hunter wants, and you guys will hear about it soon, I’m sure.”

Meanwhile, the word that he never uttered was Tom Aspinall, the man who was sitting a stone’s throw away, sipping a cocktail through a straw with a look of bemusement. At this point, Aspinall — the interim heavyweight champion, meaning the obvious next challenge for Jones — has seen his share of mallards pop up on his social feeds, and he was trying his level best to stay calm in the event he heard a quack.

He didn’t. Not exactly. What he heard was that Jones was open to the possibility of fighting him, should the UFC come correct. That was a change of tune from fight week, in which he shrugged off Aspinall as just another guy on the roster. Jones shrugged a little more in the post-fight press conference a little while later, but it was a shrug of a man ready to wear $1,000 slippers.

“At the end of the day, if I give [Aspinall] the opportunity to fight me, I want to be so compensated — I want that f*ck you money, honestly,” he said. “And that’s just what it is. Or else my life is perfect without him. I don’t need him at all, and he needs me — and that’s a good place to be in a negotiation.”

Now the question becomes, what exactly is “f*ck you” money? And how fast can the UFC wire it into his bank account? Jones had WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker at his training camp in Albuquerque, and you just know that Parker was talking about the full conga line of zeroes that will appear on his check if he faces the winner of Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. Jones, who has been one of the better compensated UFC fighters (and who lost some of his prime negotiating in the past) can be very impressionable. He would like to keep up with the Joneses.

Or in this case, the Parkers, the Usyks, and the Furys.

If the UFC truly wants to make the fight that White swore is next — the unification bout between Jones and Aspinall, already being touted as the biggest heavyweight fight in UFC history — it’s no time to get cheap. If Jones is what the UFC has insisted all year long — the GOAT of MMA and the reigning pound-for-pound king — then it needs to treat him as such. Pay him an extraordinary amount to make the fight happen. Finally give Aspinall the love he deserves by rolling out the red carpet to Jones’s chin. Back up the proverbial Brink’s truck. Make the beep-beep-beep sound with your mouth, just for effect.

We never did get to see Jones take on Francis Ngannou, which is a stunning failure for a promotion that for so long has banked on “giving the fans the fights they want to see.” To drop the ball on Jones-Aspinall would look like the UFC has failed Jones, Aspinall, and most importantly, the fans that have been sold a bill of goods. What was the point of advertising and selling Aspinall in interim title fights if it doesn’t lead to the unification bout with the GOAT?

No, there’s a big difference between blue-chip events and blue balls. New York saw the return of the great Jon Jones and has the perfect setup to answer everything going on in Saudi Arabia — to swing the “big fight” feel back to the Octagon. Jones is open to the idea if the money is right. Make it right. Make Jones and Aspinall, and the UFC restores itself as the heavyweight champion of the world.