UFC juggernaut Jon Jones has been in the spotlight after posting a video of him running at a whopping 20 miles per hour on a treadmill.
The fighter captained the post: “It feels great unlocking a different level in my athleticism!”
It feels great unlocking a different level in my athleticism! 🤙🏾 pic.twitter.com/xN9cpwGMDN
— BONY (@JonnyBones) April 29, 2021
Jones is training to make his heavyweight debut. He vacated his light heavyweight crown to move up a division because he felt like the division wasn’t challenging for him anymore.
Related: Derrick Lewis claims to KO Francis Ngannou ‘in the first exchange’ of the rematch
Poland star Jan Blachowicz then succeeded Bones as the LHW champ after defeating Domonick Reyes in the title fight at UFC 253 in September 2020.
Jones has been uploading several posts on social media since he announced ditching the LHW for the HW division.
Bigger, stronger and faster than I’ve ever been. My trainer told me I’m around 35% the athlete I could be. We have so much work to do. pic.twitter.com/tIAQn2QE3i
— BONY (@JonnyBones) April 19, 2021
Who will Jon Jones fight next?
A showdown against UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya seemed certain for Jones until the Stylebender was beaten on his light heavyweight debut against Jan Blachowicz in a bid to become a double champ.
The idea of him taking on Jon Jones was scrapped after weeks of trash-talking on social media between both stars.
Jones felt that Adesanya had technical flaws which led to his loss, hence, fighting him is off the cards.
Give it up coach, we’ve all seen your cards, your boy has almost no take down defense or offense off his back. Now you’re just being a cloud trout, if you would honestly send him in there against a 260lb wrestler after that last performance, you don’t care about his well being https://t.co/rsQYNhrA93
— BONY (@JonnyBones) March 10, 2021
Former UFC champ and ESPN commentator, Daniel Cormier, feels the same. He doesn’t see Bones locking horns against the Stylebender in near future after the UFC 259 main event.
“And because of his skill set, you’d think he can beat Jones. Today, after watching last Saturday? I believe Jones would be too big for him,” DC remarked in a recent episode of his DC & Helwani webcast.
While Cormier acknowledged Adesanya as one of the best active MMA stars, he wasn’t certain if he is skilled enough to beat Jones in a heavyweight bout.
DC added: “ … Watching Jan take him down, Jones would press him against the Octagon and take him down, right? So, I just think that that fight, for as much intrigue as there was, for me it doesn’t really need to happen. Because I just believe that now, especially with the weight that Jones has put on, not a great fight for Adesanya.”
The Francis Ngannou encounter
Jones showed interest in fighting UFC Heavyweight Champ Francis Ngannou right after the latter knocked out Stipe Miocic for the crown.
Ngannou had a similar take on the fight, but money seems to be a major issue for UFC President Dana White to schedule their fight.
On March 31, Jones revealed on Twitter that he won’t settle for anything between $8 million to 10$ million because the amount is “way too low”.
He feels that a fight of such magnitude should be more rewarding.
I had a brief phone meeting with UFC‘s lawyer Hunter a few days ago. As of right now I expressed to him that anywhere around eight to $10 million would be way too low for a fight of this magnitude. That’s all that has been discussed so far.
— BONY (@JonnyBones) March 31, 2021
But this seems highly unlikely considering that Dana White and Jones haven’t been seeing eye to eye with each other lately.
The fighter lashed out at White after the latter joked at the post-UFC 260 press conference that Jones may want to move to another division after seeing Ngannou’s strength in the Miocic fight.
