Tom Aspinall rubbishes the hotly debated pound-for-pound discussions.
The UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings currently have lightweight champion Islam Makhachev sitting at No. 1 and heavyweight champion Jon Jones ranked No. 2.
Considering that interim heavyweight champion Aspinall (14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) could be on a collision course with Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC), one would imagine that he has a strong opinion on where Jones should rank – but guess again.
“I think that pound-for-pound fighters and pound-for-pound rankings is some of the stupidest, silliest, most ludicrous concepts that anyone could ever make up,” Aspinall told MMA Junkie. “It’s a hypothetical thing. What are you going to do? Make everyone in the world the same size and have them fight each other? It’s impossible. It’s a stupid argument.
“You get all these nerds online arguing about, ‘Oh, if this guy was the same size as this guy, who would win?’ Like, what’s the point? It’s like saying if a monkey and a giraffe were the same size, who would win in a fight? It’s just ridiculous. It’s just absolute ludicrous talk. So these pound-for-pound rankings and pound-for-pound – I can’t believe people actually care about that, to be honest. It’s silly.”
Aspinall isn’t hopeful that he’ll get to unify his belt with Jones. Instead, he runs things back with Curtis Blaydes (18-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) in the UFC 304 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) co-main event July 27 in Manchester, England.
The Brit is already paving his way as a heavyweight great, but isn’t interested in being No. 1 pound-for-pound.
“I’m 260 pounds right now,” Aspinall said. “If you’re going to make me fight Demetrious Johnson, for example, who’s 125 pounds, who do you think’s going to win? You can’t prove who’s going to win pound-for-pound. So, what’s the point in considering it? It’s like saying, if Ronda Rousey was a male, would she beat Dustin Poirier in a fight? Like, it’s ludicrous talk. It’s stupid. What’s the point in talking about it? Waste of breath.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.
