Jon Jones’ plan of moving up to heavyweight was a decade-year dream
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Jones has taken time off from the UFC to properly bulk-up before his move to heavyweight
Since defeating Dominic Reyes at UFC 247, Jon Jones has been out of action. While it is expected that the 35-year-old will make his heavyweight debut this year, the UFC hasn’t provided any solid update about the same.
Nevertheless, Jones is extremely serious about his Heavyweight debut and has transformed his body accordingly. However, the move to the heavyweight division is something that Jones has been thinking about for years. During one of his interviews in 2012, the former light heavyweight champion spoke of moving up.
He said, “I’ll definitely move up to heavyweight. But it’ll probably be around 2013. Maybe at the end of 2013. Right now I have a nutritionist and I’m starting to take the career a lot more seriously than I used to, so my weight cuts are getting a lot easier. I walk around a lot thinner naturally. Right now I’m at, like, 225 (pounds). That’s a 20-pound cut. That’s really easy. So I might look bigger than most people when I’m fighting, but I’m really not.”
However, Jones dropped the idea of moving up in 2013, and instead defended his light heavyweight title against Chael Sonnen and Alexander Gustafsson.
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Chael Sonnen assesses if Jon Jones’s decision of moving up in weight is right or wrong
In 2015, Jones beat DC however, was stripped of the title for violating UFC’s Athlete Code of Conduct policy. After that Jones defended his title against Ovince Saint Preux and was caught using illegal substances. He was stripped of the championship and had to fight Cormier again for it.
In the rematch, Jones KOed Cormier but again tested positive for “turinabol” metabolite which resulted in the fight ending in no competition. Finally, Jones got back his title once again in 2018 by beating Gustafsson and after that, he defended it thrice. All these cases and getting positive results for steroids stopped Jones from moving as he was coming back again and again for the light heavyweight title. But in 2020, the fighter finally decided to vacate the title and start his journey to the heavyweight.
However, there are a few MMA pundits who don’t like the idea of Jones moving to the heavyweight division. Chael Sonnen recently shared his thoughts regarding Jones’ desire in moving up in weight. The Bad Guy believes that Jones left the division at the time when new fighters showed up. He also states that Jones would find better match-ups in the lightweight division in comparison to Heavyweight.
“These guys [at 205 pounds] have done a great job of coming in and captivating our imagination… I could think of one fight that I want to see Jones do at heavyweight and this is with Francis Ngannou, but the one fight I want to see is Stipe [Miocic]. I could name five fights at light heavyweight that I would be very very curious and I couldn’t have said that two years ago. In all fairness to Jon Jones, I really think that’s a fun division if he was to be back in it right now.” said Sonnen.
Currently, it seems like Jones is on the correct path as he believes that his destiny is winning the heavyweight belt. Moreover, the anticipation around his UFC heavyweight fight would be massive. It is surely going to be a massive event but the dates are still not confirmed.
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Soumya Ranjan
(2167 Articles Published)