Colby Covington doesn’t think we’ll see Jon Jones compete in the UFC ever again.
Colby Covington thinks UFC president Dana White might be onto something.
‘Chaos’ claims that former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones never had any intention of competing at heavyweight and that ‘Bones’ was only looking to fight Francis Ngannou for ‘one more cash’ grab before he exits the sport for good.
White didn’t phrase it in those exact terms but the UFC head honcho strongly hinted that Jones may never fight in the UFC again.
“No, he’s [Jon Jones] not fighting at heavyweight man,” Covington said on the MMA Roasted podcast (h/t Essentially Sports), echoing White’s sentiments. “He’s done, he doesn’t have the right scientist, the right juice to do anymore. He knows he’s done. He’s trying to get one more cash grab and hope that it’s so much money that he doesn’t have to do anything but I don’t think he’s ever fighting again. I just don’t see it.
“If he wanted a fight, he would have fought already,” Covington added. “He would have went back to light heavyweight and fought Jan or something. He’s too small for heavyweight man. He’s just looking to get a big cash grab with Francis but he knows he’s going to get knocked out so he’s trying to get as much money as he can to take that ass beating.”
Jones vacated the light heavyweight title last year in a bid to move up to heavyweight and become a two-division champion, but things haven’t exactly worked out in his favor.
The pound-for-pound No. 1 has been unable to reach a deal with the UFC on fighter pay and has been stuck in limbo for the past year. He did recently bring in former Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer as his new advisor, but White still doesn’t expect we’ll see him return to the cage anytime soon and has ‘absolutely moved on’ from the idea of Jones ever fighting at heavyweight.
As for Covington, White confirmed that the former interim champ is next in line to fight Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title. The 33-year-old previously lost to Usman via fifth-round TKO in a welterweight title bout at UFC 245 and is reported to have suffered a broken jaw.