Can you believe that at 25-years-old Jon Jones is preparing to leave the light heavyweight division in the dust for the heavyweight division and the vague “superfight.” The reason why I say that superfights for Jon are vague is based purely on the fact that outside of Anderson Silva, or strangely enough GSP, every “superfight” would be at heavyweight… Right?
Either way, color me impressed.
Today on the UFC 159 conference call, Jones said his goal as of right now in 2013 was to break Tito Ortiz’s 5 light heavyweight title defenses, then move on…
“One thing I’ve been contemplating is first tying Tito Ortiz, and then establishing that record of the most wins in my next fight, maybe in November, and after that fight in November, entertaining super fights and heavyweight fights.”
When asked by a dense media member about Anderson Silva, which would fall under the “superfight” category, Bones responded:
“I said what I said.”
So let’s assume he gets past Chael, which is likely, then takes on Machida in November and defeats him, bringing us to Bones Jones, Anderson and the heavyweight division. Will he fight Anderson? Will Anderson fight him? At what weight? 205? By that point Anderson will be 39, almost 40, and the aura of Bones taking on fighters “past their prime” will possibly continue (unless anderson continues to be the greatest ever).
So who would Bones even fight coming into the heavyweight division? He walks around at about 235, could probably pull off an Overeem style bulk-up with the proper proteins, and be able to fight around 240-245. It’s no 265, but Cain Velasquez fights around 240 pounds, so it could work. Now who would he fight?
Daniel Cormier makes sense, and both fighters are on each other’s radar. Or would the UFC let Bones warm up with a Stefan Struve fight perhaps? That’s the furthest from the top ten you could go without absolutely slapping Jon in the face, or do you throw him to the heavyweight wolves immediately and give him a Bigfoot, Mark Hunt, Werdum fight off the bat?
Either way, the next year will be very, very interesting, and we can’t wait to see how it plays out.
