Cain Velasquez believes Jon Jones would beat Tom Aspinall.
Jones is the reigning UFC heavyweight champion and is expected to meet Britain’s Aspinall, the interim champion, this year to unify the division.
‘Bones’, 37, defended his heavyweight strap at UFC 309 in November against the now-retired Stipe Miocic, finishing him in the third round with a brutal spinning back kick.
Aspinall, who last fought at UFC Manchester in July to retain his interim status against Curtis Blaydes, has been calling for a fight with Jones for months now to no avail.
Jones has admitted he would prefer a fight with UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, saying he’d only consider a fight with Aspinall for ‘f*** you money’.
And predictions about a fight between Jones and Aspinall are coming thick and fast.
“No, I don’t think he does [beat Jon Jones],” Velasquez, 42, said on The Ariel Helwani Show when pressed on Aspinall’s UFC performances.
“So me, just watching him, I kind of see his pattern a little bit in his striking, the way he comes in and strikes.
“I think Jon sees it too. So, I think with that just cause — Jon studies. He does his homework.
“He’s a master at this. He analyses things, he studies you over and over again. I think just for that reason, he’s going to know what to do. So I don’t think he [Aspinall] beats Jon.”
MMA fans have had mixed responses at to whether the blockbuster heavyweight bout would actually happen, with many of them saying Jones was ‘ducking’ Aspinall.
However, UFC President Dana White offered a rare guarantee in December that Jones and Aspinall, 31, would ‘100 per cent’ meet in 2025.
UFC commentator Joe Rogan even suggested that 37-year-old Jones had requested around $30million to get into the octagon with Aspinall.
“Everybody has a pattern, everybody has a fight pattern,” Velasquez added.
“Some people disguise it better than others. The simple fact is the way Tom, the way that he comes in and fights, he has a pattern that’s somewhat easier to find.
“When he comes in and strikes, I think you know what I’m talking about. A lot of things come with that. It’s disguising the pattern, it’s throwing fakes before.
“But when he comes in and attacks, he comes in and attacks. It’s 100 percent, full go.
“He comes in and glides in, lunges in, and does his attack. Not that it’s not effective, it is! He’s done great things with it. Look where he’s at now.
“I’m not taking anything away from him, but I think that the type of guy that Jon Jones is, I think he studies him and he beats him because of that.”
Velasquez became the first Mexican-American to win a major MMA title when he defeated Brock Lesnar in 2010 at UFC 121.
He lost his first defence of the heavyweight title over a year later against Junior Dos Santos before fighting his way back to a championship fight and beating him in a rematch.
The 42-year-old then embarked on a four-fight winning streak before dropping his belt to Frabricio Werdum at UFC 188 in 2015.
After nearly three years, Velasquez returned to the UFC for one last dance in 2019, but his hero’s welcome at the Footprint Centre in Phoenix, Arizona, was short-lived following a 26-second knockout defeat to Francis Ngannou.
Velasquez has since announced he has signed with newly-formed MMA promotion Global Fight League (GFL).
The promotion announced this month that the former heavyweight champion had joined them as a team manager.
GFL launches this year and will feature six teams across four continents, with venues booked in 10 cities worldwide.
Each team will consist of 20 fighters across 10 weight classes, a unique feature of the GFL, as all bouts will reportedly operate under a catchweight system.
