Dana White wants to see Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier III at heavyweight.
Reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones seemingly has no interest in challenging Daniel Cormier for the heavyweight title, but Dana White thinks it would make for one of the greatest grudge matches of all time.
Jones, 31, has beat Cormier at light heavyweight in two separate bouts but the latter win at UFC 214 (KO) was overturned to a No Contest (NC) after ‘Bones’ tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).
Speaking to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto in a recent interview, White said he would like to see the trilogy bout at heavyweight.
“Cormier has this fight coming up against Stipe Miocic (at UFC 241). If he gets past Stipe he probably has two fights left in his career. I would expect one of those would probably be Jon Jones, and hopefully at heavyweight,” White said, per BJPenn.com’s Adam Martin.
“I think Jon said, ‘I don’t want to move up to heavyweight to fight him, I’ll fight him at 205.’ And Cormier said, ‘I don’t want to beat him at heavyweight I want to beat him at 205.’ Try to get those two to agree on anything (laughs), well they do agree they want to fight at 205. But I want to see it at heavyweight.”
Although White says the fight doesn’t necessarily have to happen, the UFC president says both men are under a lot pressure from the fans.
“Cormier is an all-time great,” he said. “The only guy to ever beat him is Jon Jones, and he beat him twice. Does the third fight have to happen? No, it doesn’t have to happen. But a lot of fans want to see it happen.”
Jones is scheduled to defend his light heavyweight title against Thiago Santos at UFC 239, while Cormier, the reigning heavyweight champion, is set to defend his HW strap against former champ Stipe Miocic at UFC 241. UFC 239: Jones vs. Santos takes place next month, July 6 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. UFC 241: Cormier vs. Miocic II takes place the following month, Aug. 17 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.