Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Jon Jones entertains the idea of moving up to heavyweight and fight champion Stipe Miocic.
Although Jon Jones will have his hands full against undefeated challenger Dominick Reyes at UFC 247, that’s not stopping the UFC light heavyweight champion from making future plans for his career beyond Saturday night.
In an interview with Combate, Jones once again entertained the idea of moving up to the heavyweight division, but only if he were to take on the champion, Stipe Miocic. However, before taking that step, ‘Bones’ revealed he would like to defend his 205 title against Corey Anderson.
“That would be great. There are many scary heavyweights and Stipe is one of them. If I were to move up and try to win that title, it would have to be against him. Even though he’s considered the best heavyweight of all time, I think it would be an easy win. I really don’t know when that would happen, but I want to fight him. However, I would like to face Corey Anderson in my next fight. He has been talking a lot of trash and that made the fight appealing to me. So, I’d like to fight Corey Anderson and then maybe Miocic.”
Although the next challenger to Jones’ title, Dominick Reyes, is undefeated in 12 professional bouts, six of them under the UFC’s banner, Bones does not think he will pose much of a threat on Saturday night, betting on his vast fighting experience in order to pick up another successful defense.
“Dominick is young and hasn’t lost yet, but that doesn’t mean much to me. Sure, all those guys have extraordinary talent. He’s not that younger than me. I could follow him when he was really young, but when you put him next to me, I’m light-years ahead of him.”
In his last outing, Jones (25-1-1 NC) edged out Thiago Santos via split decision back in July 2019. The win put the 32-year-old on a three-fight streak, with wins over Anthony Smith and Alexander Gustafsson. In July 2017 his victory over Daniel Cormier was ruled a non contest, due to Jones testing positive for the banned substance Turinabol.
Now, Jones is expected to take on Dominick Reyes at UFC 247’s main event, on February 8, in Houston, Texas. In the night’s co-main event, the female flyweight champion, Valentina Shevchenko, will look to make her third title defense, against Katlyn Chookagian.