Jon Jones may or may not proceed fighting beyond UFC 309, but when he does, the reigning heavyweight champion has declared he could be willing to return for another fight against light heavyweight king Alex Pereira over Tom Aspinall.
Complicating Jones’ wish is the incontrovertible fact that Aspinall currently is the UFC interim heavyweight champ, a title he claimed in November 2023 with a knockout of Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295. That door was opened only because Jones suffered a pectoral injury that forced him to withdraw from his original date with Stipe Miocic.
If Jones, who’s flirted with retiring after UFC 309, defeats Miocic and continues his profession beyond Saturday night’s fundamental event, many (even perhaps nearly all of) fans and pundits consider he should unify the title with Aspinall, UFC CEO Dana White amongst them. But as far Jones is worried, those individuals are simply misguided.
“Well, the interim championship shouldn’t have been there in the primary place,” Jones said Monday in an interview with Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter. “The one reason there was an interim championship fight was because I got hurt, they usually needed to maintain the importance of that Madison Square Garden event (UFC 295). But Sergei and Aspinall shouldn’t have been fighting for an interim title in the primary place. They need to’ve just been a substitute fight, a fundamental event. I feel making it an interim fight was premature, and now you could have a bunch of confused people.”
Jones vs. Pereira for the BMF title?
When considering a future fight with Pereira or Aspinall, Jones views “Poatan” because the matchup that may help his legacy more, which is vital to him. In spite of everything, it’s why Jones is fighting Miocic, who’s widely considered the best heavyweight of all time, as a substitute of Aspinall, despite the previous champ’s three-and-a-half-year layoff.
Pereira, who’s the identical age as Jones (37), brings much more to the table by way of credentials, having claimed the UFC middleweight title by knocking out Israel Adesanya before he moved as much as Jones’ old stomping grounds of sunshine heavyweight and winning 4 consecutive title fights.
If it’s the status of the heavyweight champion that has everyone up in arms about why he should fight Aspinall, Jones is willing to vacate with a view to make a Pereira showdown occur.
“It’d be cool to fight (Pereira) for the heavyweight championship, but I’d also willingly hand over the heavyweight championship,” Jones said. “I walked away from the sunshine heavyweight championship, and I’d like to walk away from this one, as well, on top, on (my) own terms, good head on (my) shoulders, making numerous money. I like the position that I’m in without delay.”
Jones even has an idea for the UFC to think about should a fight with Pereira come to fruition.
“Fighting Pereira for the BMF belt, that’d be cool,” Jones said. “We each have two belts in two weight classes. The night we fought, we’d each be fighting for our third belt, which could be the BMF. How cool would that be?”
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