Businesswise Stipe vs Jones will make sense for Jones. Less risky and with higher pay than fighting Tom which could fatally backfire on Jones ending his career with a loss. That's not good for someone who wanted to be the goat.
The thing is, everybody knows and expects Stipe to be an easy fight for Jones. Jon tries to wrap it up as fighting against the heavyweight GOAT, but that's simply not true. Stipe was great but he's effectively retired and going back to the octagon only for the money.
With that in mind, I'm not so sure if the pay would be higher for Stipe than for Aspinall. Tom made his name quite quickly and everybody knows he's the real challenge, defeating him would undoubtedly prove that Jones is the greatest in the world. I know which fight I'd prefer to see and I'm sure most of the UFC fans would agree.
Giving Blaydes the rematch with Tom will be good to see how it would have happened if the injury hadn't happened. Tom's belt is fake. UFC just made it so that Jones will not be stripped. But he should have been stripped. In an interview, Tom also said so.
Nah, I don't see it. Just because Tom injured himself in that fight doesn't mean Blaydes deserves to fight the (interim) champion.
I don't agree Jones should've been stripped, but he should definitely be facing the interim belt holder immediately after his recovery.