It was over a year in the making, but Saturday night at UFC 309, Jon Jones finally put Stipe Miocic down for what he had left to do. With a galaxy of Republican celebrities on the edge of Madison Square Garden (alongside Kid Rock), heavyweight champion Jones reminded everyone what a tyrant he can be on fight night.

And let’s be honest, that was a lot easier than most people thought, and certainly easier than it was billed for. He stabbed the 42-year-old Miocic from the outskirts of the Octagon and stunned him with the speed at which he ignited. He defeated Miocic with more than three minutes to go in the first round, dropping elbows on him as the most ruthless big game hunter. He kicked his body like it was a big bag of Cleveland flour, and the fatal blow was a spinning kick to the gut in the third round, which snuffed out Miocic’s last lights in the fight game.

It was mean. Methodical. You could even say ritual. Miocic, who was the big distraction in this piece of stubborn matchmaking, was the sacrifice for a bigger payday. Jones even did Donald Trump’s dance right afterward, perhaps one of the iciest moves since Johnny Walker tried the worm.

When Joe Rogan asked Jones what was next for him, whether it would be retirement or a super fight with Alex Pereira or perhaps unifying the belt against the (Voldemort figure from Salford), Jones threw it back to the Great Man Above, Jesus Christ, before hinting at an upcoming meeting with Benjamin Franklin and his army.

“As far as my future in the Octagon is concerned, I have decided that I may not retire,” he said to a loud ovation from New Yorkers. “And that I have to have some conversations with Dana (White) and Hunter (Campbell), and we have to do some negotiating, and if all goes well, maybe we’ll give you guys what you want to see.”

Asked for further explanation, Jon reiterated that he expected UFC CEO White to offer some fatherly warmth.

“You know, we know we have options. I’m just going to see what Uncle Dana wants and what Uncle Hunter wants, and you’ll hear about it soon, I’m sure.”

Meanwhile, the word he never uttered was Tom Aspinall, the man sipping a cocktail from a straw with a bewildered look on his face a few feet away. At this point, Aspinall – the interim heavyweight champion, which means the obvious next challenge for Jones – has seen his share of mallards popping up on his social feeds, and he’s been doing his level best to stay calm just in case he heard a quack.

He didn’t. Not exactly. What he heard was that Jones was open to the possibility of fighting him if the UFC proves right. That was a change of tone from fight week, where he shrugged off Aspinall as just another guy on the roster. Jones shrugged some more moments later during the post-fight press conference, but it was the shrug of a man ready to wear $1,000 slippers.

“At the end of the day, if I give (Aspinall) the opportunity to fight me, that’s how I want to be compensated – I want that f*ck you money, honestly,” he said. “And that’s exactly what it is. Otherwise my life is perfect without him. I don’t need him at all, and he needs me – and that’s a good place to negotiate.”

Now the question arises: what exactly is “f*ck you” money? And how quickly can the UFC transfer it to its bank account? Jones had WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker at his training camp in Albuquerque, and you just know Parker was talking about the full conga line of zeros that will appear on his check when he faces the winner of Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. Jones, who has been one of the better compensated UFC fighters (and who has lost some of his key negotiating leverage in the past) could be very impressionable. He wants to keep up with the Joneses.

Or in this case the Parkers, the Usyks and the Furys.

If the UFC really wants to put on the fight that White has sworn is next — the unification fight between Jones and Aspinall, already being touted as the greatest heavyweight fight in UFC history — it’s not time to get cheap. If Jones is what the UFC has been pushing himself to be all year – the GOAT of MMA and the reigning pound-for-pound king – then it should treat him as such. Pay him an extraordinary amount of money to make the fight happen. Finally give Aspinall some love He deserves by rolling out the red carpet to Jones’ chin. Back up the proverbial Brink’s truck. Make the beep-beep-beep sound with your mouth, just for effect.

We never saw Jones face Francis Ngannou, which is a stunning failure for a promotion that has for so long relied on “giving the fans the fights they want to see.” Dropping the ball on Jones-Aspinall would make it look like the UFC has abandoned Jones, Aspinall, and especially the fans who were sold a bill of goods. What was the point of advertising and selling Aspinall in interim title fights if it doesn’t lead to the unification fight with the GOAT?

No, there is a big difference between blue chip events and blue balls. New York saw the return of the great Jon Jones and has the perfect setup to answer whatever is going on in Saudi Arabia – to bring the ‘big fight’ feeling back to the Octagon. Jones is open to the idea of ​​whether the money is good. Make it right. Create Jones and Aspinall, and the UFC will re-establish itself as the heavyweight champion of the world.