Daniel Cormier: Tom Aspinall no longer being respectful to Jon Jones 'a massive win'

Daniel Cormier is enjoying Tom Aspinall’s more aggressive approach towards Jon Jones.

Interim heavyweight champion Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) continues to try and lure Jones into fighting him, but the heavyweight champion is adamant that the Stipe Miocic fight needs to happen.

Aspinall had reached a point where he almost gave up on his pursuit of fighting Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC), until he took a different approach. Aspinall started mocking Jones by putting together skits, and Cormier approves of this method.

“The fact that he’s not being as respectful as he was before is a massive, massive win for Tom Aspinall because before, it was easy to ignore him,” Cormier said on his “Funky and the Champ” show with Ben Askren.

Cormier is unsure what to make of Jones’ attitude. Jones has been dismissive of Aspinall, and hinted at potential retirement after he fights Miocic. Cormier wants to see Aspinall continue to poke at Jones and put the champion in a position in which he may have to fight him.

“I believe that those guys should fight, but Jon seems – and I don’t know if he’s trolling; he really can be trolling because I don’t know Jon Jones to be openly saying, ‘I’m just not fighting that guy,'” Cormier said. “That doesn’t seem to be his personality.

“But when you read that post on X, how do you not take from that that he just doesn’t want to fight this kid? .. (Aspinall) could flat-out say, ‘This man is afraid to fight me,’ and people draw to that like nothing you’ve seen before. And when (Jones) says that, openly say, ‘OK, I’m the backup fighter for (Jones vs. Miocic in) New York City.'”