Stuart Austin believes there’s one thing Jon Jones can target to get past Tom Aspinall.
Austin is just one of three fighters who holds a victory over Aspinall, and pinpointed an area of his game that beat the UFC interim heavyweight champion that could also help Jones.
Aspinall has been calling for a fight with Jones to unify the division since cementing himself as one of the best heavyweights Dana White‘s promotion.
“The big thing that hasn’t been tested in the UFC has been his wrestling,” Austin told talkSPORT.com.
“If you want to look back at me, I outwrestled him. Obviously he’s got a lot better since then. He’s been doing wrestling classes, he’s better at everything.
“He’s better with his distance management. He’s better with his MMA in general. You’ve seen moments like when he took down [Andrei] Arlovski, he did a really, really smooth takedown in that fight.
“But I think clinch and wrestling would probably be the way to go for Jon, because if he strikes with Aspinall, I think there’s only one person going to win that fight.”
Given that Aspinall’s two other MMA defeats came from an illegal elbow and a torn knee, it would be correct to assume Austin is the only man with a legitimate win over Aspinall.
Aspinall met Austin in his fourth fight as a professional having gone undefeated at the start of his career under the BAMMA banner.
He was pummelling his fellow Brit on the canvas, until Austin got him into a heel hook submission and made him tap out.
After losing for the second time to Lukasz Parobiec, Aspinall went on a rampage of beating some the best heavyweights which led him from Cage Warriors to the UFC.
The 31-year-old has since cleared out the UFC’s heavyweight division en route to the promotion’s summit.
Aspinall’s only other defeat came when he suffered a freak knee injury just 15 seconds into his bout with Curtis Blaydes at UFC London in July 2022.
Jones is one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time and currently holds the UFC heavyweight title.
However, Austin considers Aspinall as an even better fight now, but did admit that Jones could get the better of him by going that one bit further than previous opponents.
“You put Aspinall in against all these top guys and you’re like: ‘Well, maybe they will go out and test him’,” Austin added.
“But they just fall over. His power and his speed and accuracy of getting to the target is really, really impressive.
“So maybe Jon could test the deep waters, try and take him a little bit further.
“But again, maybe you don’t have that as a choice. I’m sure everyone’s tried to take him a little bit further.
“He’s an amazing martial artist. You know, he really is the best heavyweight right now.”
Even though he has now signed to MMA’s newest promotion, the Global Fight League (GFL), Austin’s mindset has shifted from learning to teaching as he attempts to guide young fighters to the promotion he failed to reach.
Austin is the coach of undefeated heavyweight Mario Pinto, who makes his UFC debut on March 1 against Austen Lane in Las Vegas.
“It’s a lot nicer to send other people into battle than going yourself,” Austin continued.
“I genuinely don’t care about winning apart from sort of financially. But I also don’t want to get hurt.”
The GFL will launch in April 2025 with six teams from four continents competing in the regular season, before moving on to the semi-finals and finals.
Fighters will earn four points for a win, three points for a decision win, two points for a draw, one point for a decision loss and zero points for a finish loss.
Ex-UFC legends like Tony Ferguson and Tyron Woodley have already signed with the promotion that has promised a 50/50 revenue share with its fighters
Although Austin recognises the financial benefits that may come from representing the GFL, he revealed that he is able to find motivation from being involved with something new.
“It’s not the only factor,” Austin said when asked if he joined the GFL purely for money.
“Obviously, the money is good. I am aware of the future, and just because I don’t love competing now doesn’t mean I might not regret not taking opportunities in the future.
“I find the idea exciting. I find it, like I say, an intriguing prospect. It’s something that’s an interest.
“It’s new, it’s fresh. You know, it can shake things up a bit. And I don’t want to live with regrets. I’ve only got a couple of times I feel like in my MMA career that I made a really bad decision.
“It’s always like: ‘Oh, I’m not taking this because the time wasn’t perfect or this wasn’t that’.
“So if worse comes to worse and I don’t enjoy it in six months, I can fight the season out and retire then.
“And if I’m having a good time, if I’m enjoying the experience and you don’t have to, it’s the fight itself I don’t enjoy.
“I can enjoy the media, I love training, I have a great time training. So I can have a really positive time with other things without necessarily enjoying having someone trying to keep my head off.”
Austin’s first opponent in the GFL is likely to be announced soon.