Jon Jones’ time away from the Octagon only lasted three weeks.
Coming off his second successful title defense against Lyoto Machida at UFC 140, the 24-year-old champion is eager to return and defend the light heavyweight title once again.
UFC President Dana White recently made an appearance on on ESPN Radio’s “The Insiders” and said Jones is ready to go.
“[Jones] called about four days ago and said ‘okay let’s go, I’m done with vacation,'” White said. “He’s ready to go.”
Jones already stated he wanted to compete three or four times this year after having one of the biggest individual years in mixed martial arts history. Having defeated such fighters as Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Lyoto Machida and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, it would seem like Jones is poised for a remarkable title run at this stage of his career and has no intention of slowing down yet.
While injuries have currently sidelined Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre, and the retirement of Brock Lesnar, it wouldn’t be a bad investment on the UFC’s part to further market the young champion and have him return sooner rather than later.
And White said with possible challengers such as Rashad Evans and Dan Henderson awaiting their opportunity, a decision regarding Jones’ next opponent should become much more clearer following UFC on FOX 2 on January 28th.
“What could end up happening is Dan Henderson fights Jon Jones first, and then [Jones’ subsequent fight] would be close to the time that Rashad fights,” he said. “Or we see how things go with Rashad [versus Phil Davis] and Rashad fights him first.”
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