Corey Anderson lays out why he deserves Jon Jones next, and Jones didn’t exactly shoot it down.
UFC light heavyweight Corey Anderson is in the best position of his career. The former TUF winner picked up a huge victory over Ilir Latifi at UFC 232, his third win in a row over ranked competition. The rankings haven’t been updated since the event yet, but “Overtime” will likely be in the top five for the first time when they do.
And he wants a shot at new champion Jon Jones.
Anderson laid out his case in a long tweet comparing his current spot to where the other top-ranked fighters are currently sitting:
@JonnyBones F what the people talking about, I’m your huckleberry. Everybody else is booked and Smith hasn’t earned his stripes. @ufc @AliAbdelaziz00 @danawhite @Mickmaynard2 @arielhelwani @MMAjunkie pic.twitter.com/n6Q3bnhB8u
— Corey Anderson UFC (@CoreyA_MMA) January 1, 2019
It didn’t take long for Jones, who stopped Alexander Gustafsson in the UFC 232 headliner to win the vacant 205-pound title, to respond. And Anderson responded in kind:
All the smoke!!
— Corey Anderson UFC (@CoreyA_MMA) January 1, 2019
Anderson isn’t alone in his quest for a title shot. Anthony Smith quickly called out Jones after his win, and obviously there’s Daniel Cormier out there. It’s unclear if Jones would actually be interested in fighting non-draws like Anderson or Smith, and he did call out Cormier in his post-fight interview. But it doesn’t look like Cormier wants to go back to 205.
To me, the logical answer is to have Anderson face Smith in a top contenders fight. But I’m not Sean Shelby, and we’ll have to wait to see what he thinks.