Recently, news broke of Jon Jones vacating his light heavyweight championship. But, it didn’t take the UFC too long to keep the ball rolling. Now that Jon has relinquished, the fight scheduled between Dominick Reyes and Jan Blachowicz is for the vacant title. Now that the land of 205lbs is behind him, Jones is ready to compete in the heavyweight division. However, with Francis Ngannou looming, UFC President Dana White doesn’t think Jon Jones should be a heavyweight title shot right away.
Jones to Heavyweight
Jon has been teasing a move to heavyweight and plans to make a splash in the division. In fact, he’s offered to face Francis Ngannou on multiple occasions, as long as the money was right. But, an ongoing back and forth with the UFC stalled negotiations due to what Jon believed to be a “low ball” deal. However, now that Jones has relinquished, he has no direction to move, but upward.
Dana White on Jon Jones Heavyweight Title Aspirations
Dana White recently appeared on Sportscenter via ESPN. During the broadcast, White stated that he believes Jon’s light heavyweight accolades are more than enough to boost him in front of many heavyweights for a title shot. However, one person he won’t be able to leapfrog is Francis Ngannou.
“(Jones ) is the longtime light heavyweight champion. In my opinion, he’s the greatest of all time,” said Dana. “And, if he wants to come back and take a shot at the heavyweight championship, I wouldn’t have a problem with that. But he can’t just jump in front of Ngannou right now.”
“We have the top 4-5 (heavyweight contenders) laid out for fights coming up in the fall. So we’ll see when Jon Jones’ timing is to come back and who makes sense for him.”
Making A Match
With Ngannou earning the title shot, who should Jon Jones face in his heavyweight debut? And, if he displays a great performance, should he get the next shot?
