A tweet from Jones about moving to heavyweight was nothing more than a tease as Dana White confirms a light heavyweight title defense is next.
Jon Jones is one strange dude.
Just a few hours ago on Wednesday afternoon, the light heavyweight champion sent out a tweet on social media suggesting a heavyweight fight with Stipe Miocic might be in the cards for UFC 239 on July 6th.
But now ESPN has confirmed with UFC president Dana White that Jones will face Brazilian heavy hitter Thiago “Maretta” Santos in another light heavyweight title defense. In the co-main slot, women’s double champ Amanda Nunes will face Holly Holm. Additional sources confirmed to ESPN that these fights are verbally agreed to, although no bout agreements have been signed.
Jones is coming off a dominating defense of his title against Anthony Smith at UFC 235 that saw him batter Smith for five full rounds. And while Thiago Santos has been wrecking his opposition with three straight knockout wins, we expect “Bones” to be a heavy, heavy favorite coming into their showdown.
ON THE BUTTON@TMarretaMMA lands clean to close out #UFCPrague pic.twitter.com/MdQvLFIVLy
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) February 23, 2019
As for Amanda Nunes, she’ll be defending her women’s bantamweight belt rather than the featherweight title she took off Cris Cyborg at UFC 232. Which is a bit strange considering Holly Holm’s last two fights have been contested at 145 — a loss to Cyborg followed by a decision win in June of 2018 over Megan Anderson. Holm was originally scheduled to fight Aspen Ladd at bantamweight for UFC 235 but the UFC scuttled the fight, presumably to set up this match-up.
Holm will enter the cage with a new six fight contract, and White stated on the UFC Unfiltered podcast that Nunes will probably rematch Cris Cyborg next.
UFC 239 goes down in Las Vegas for what is known as International Fight Week. Negotiations to have Conor McGregor fight on the card fell through recently, with McGregor announcing his retirement. Aside from the main and co-main, the card will also feature a 205 pound battle between Luke Rockhold and Jan Blachowicz.