UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones would like to compete outside Las Vegas more often.
Jones defends his title against Dominick Reyes in the UFC 247 headliner on Saturday. For a change, the fight will not be in Sin City as it takes place in Houston, Texas. Although Jones has fought in various cities throughout his career, four of his last six fights have taken place in Las Vegas.
If the numbers do well for UFC 247, Jones would like to compete in other markets, even potential foreign ones.
“Maybe I need to step outside of Las Vegas and fight in these markets where people don’t see me too often,” Jones told MMA Junkie. “I think that’s going to be important.
“If I can possibly break numbers here in Houston, I can only imagine what would happen if I went to Australia or one of these other countries where they’d never expect to see me. The people would come out and that’s what it’s all about.”
Jones has spoken of building his brand more to emulate the likes of Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov. One way of doing that would be to fight in places such as Australia.
It’s also funny that “Bones” mentioned Australia as it could be a potential location for a super fight with UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya down the line.
Jones acknowledged that “The Last Stylebender” is a big draw, especially Down Under. However, he joked that that he’d be a bigger one.
“Yeah he is (a big draw),” Jones added. “I bet I’d be even bigger.”
Do you want to see Jones fight abroad?