Jon Jones will be fighting for the title in his heavyweight debut.
Jones vacated his light heavyweight crown last year in order to prepare for his long-awaited move up in 2021. Many observers speculated whether he would get a tune-up opponent first or fight for the belt straight away.
After initial reports that seemed to indicate the latter, it looks like that will be the case as UFC president Dana White essentially confirmed that Jones would face the winner of the Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou rematch.
“We know what he wants,” White told TMZ. “He wants the winner of Stipe and Francis, so that fight’s gotta happen first.
“Yep [he will get the winner]. It should happen this year. It depends if that fight with Stipe and Francis goes off before summer, then we could have that fight happen in the summertime.”
Miocic Faces Ngannou Next Month
It seems White forgot about Miocic vs. Ngannou 2 being official as it has already been announced as the UFC 260 headliner which takes place March 27 in Las Vegas. So it’s more than possible the winner goes on to fight Jones in the summer.
The only question is if Ngannou wins, will he fight Jones or will Miocic get a trilogy with the score being one apiece?
Based on Miocic’s relationship with the UFC brass, however, we can assume Ngannou would go on to face Jones.
