I got nothing but respect for his dumb ass. Dude's been facing nothing but killers for the most part since he came to the UFC over 5 years ago.
And...vacated the title when he got injured as not to hold up his peers for achieving their dream. That's a real man. Look at Jon - sat out for over a year, comes back to fight fucking Stipe, then retires. That's a clown.
@Xamot
It's been about a year since Aspinall got injured...
Goat Jones and stipe was set right after ufc 285, so naturally yeah... that's the same fight he's having after his injury is done.
Aspinall got beat up... then eyepoked, rode that to a nc and now has held his belt for... 451 days (2 days ago vacated) with 0 title defenses.. yeah.. it was long passed time to give the belt up.
You also failed to mention the other 16 title fights Goat Jones was in (I know it's a lot)
So you're right. Let's compare first reigns.
Aspinall 461 days as champ (0 defenses)
Goat Jones first title reign 1498 days as champ (8 defenses)
1st defense rampage jackson (197 days after winning the title)
2nd defense Lyoto machida (77 days after 1st defense)
3rd defense Rashad Evans ( 130 days after)
Oh if you do the math, that's 3 title defenses in a year and 1 month.
4th title defense Vitor Belfort (151 days after last title defense)
5th title defense Sonnen (215 days after, including fiming for TUF)
6th title defense Gustafsson (147 days after last defense)
7th title defense Texeira (185 days after last defense)
8th title defense Cormier (252 days after last defense)
So that's a title defense every 5 months? I did the math it's likw 5.3. That's insane activity. I think he deserves to choose his retirement fight, after not just fighting a murderer's row of beasts.. he did so on a consistent basis.. to the point where he rules
Every important title fight metric
Most defenses with shortest days
Longest time as p4p in the world
0 losses
Comparing Tom holding a belt.. and someone who shows that they will defend it against anyone.. as they always have.. is wild...
And I only showed you his first reign..
Oh and let's throw out the young excuse.. If I tell you that in his 2nd reign as champ.. before 400 days as champ.. he already had 3 title defenses.. you wouldn't believe me.. but it's true.
Yes.. THAT champion, can sit on the belt for a year and rest his injury (he 'sat' on the belt for 7 months and announced he was returning from injury.. also different).
Tom is injured but has no time table, Goat Jones had a time table and beat it.
2 different fighters, yes Goat Jones gets special privilege. I would give that to any champion that proved their dominance against the best of their division, the truly elite of their division for years... yes they can rest a year if they need it, especially due to injury.
No champion I see NOW, I would afford that courtesy, everyone WANTS to be recognized as great.. but barely fight.
Flyweight - pantoja is active and should get his belt back. Van is pretty active.
Bantamweight- The 2 BW goats are fighting in October, both pretty active if not injured.
Featherweight- Volk.. not a fan at all, but far more active than most fw champs aside from holloway.
Lightweight- Gaethje, barely fights and is already trying to select his next opponent. I don't see him attempting 2 title defenses.. doubt he does 1.
Welterweight -






the champ of this weight class, doesn't fight and if he does, it's usually a contender that is not a contender.. and still goes to war every time...
Middleweight- Strickland is a very active fighter, but doesn't have a title defense to his name, so no telling how he'd be. But I'm hoping for a long reign.
Light Heavyweight- Ulberg bores me, but you can usually expect him to fight every 5-6 months, idc as champ, but he's injured so I won't attack him, even though Jiri GAVE HIM THAT WIN.
Heavyweight- Gane, I want to blame him for his activity as of late.. but when you look at it.. it makes sense. After Volkov, Gane was definitely next, so After the aspinall fight, of course gane was fighting for a title again due to that fight, just not sure with who.. which turned out to be Pereira. Dominated him and now he's champ. Idk what kind of champ since he hasn't fought yet but.. yeah..
I got off topic, but yes Goat Jones deserved to decide who his FINAL fight was going to be. If it was anyone else, people would be fine. We get it, people hate Goat Jones, but damn...