CEITEDMOFO
Banned
Jon Jones has conquered almost every possible challenge at light heavyweight during his time in the UFC. While fights with Dan Henderson and Alexander Gustafsson remain intriguing (and new) challenges, first we have to wait for the completely undeserving challenge from Chael Sonnen following the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Despite clearly having enough new fights to get him through 2013 and beyond, much focus is on Jones in either a superfight with Anderson Silva or a move up in weight to heavyweight.
The potential move up in weight is something that Jones discussed during his Metro PCS fan chat ahead of this past weekend's UFC on Fox 5 card (via MMA Mania):
"I definitely have goals to compete at heavyweight and obviously go for the championship," Jones said in the chat last Saturday evening. "But it's a ways away. Right now I'm cutting weight more efficiently, trying to eat smarter and do things better and the weight cuts are getting easier so, heavyweight might be a ways away."
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"Fighting Cain would be a great honor in the future," Jones said. "I'm here to fight the best guys and I would love to fight Cain in the future. Not because I don't like him or anything I think he's an awesome guy, but, you know, the competition. That's why I'm here. "
Jon made it clear that he has no designs to compete in both light heavyweight and heavyweight simultaneously, stating that the move to heavyweight would be permanent:
"When I move up to heavyweight I definitely won't be trying to hang on to two belts at the same time," he said. "I'll be focused, you know, strictly on heavyweight."
...
"When I compete at heavyweight I plan on weighing like 240 and I really won't want to get much bigger than that." Jones said in the chat. "I think speed and agility would give me an advantage being smaller than those guys, so."
The thought of Jones vs. Velasquez is exciting, regardless of if Cain manages to beat Junior dos Santos later this month and regain the UFC heavyweight championship. It's an outstanding stylistic match-up.
It's good to see that Jones has his head on straight about the situation. He's still a young man with plenty of time ahead of him in the sport. He's got fights left at 205 so, despite MMA fan impatience, he doesn't need to rush into a new challenge and weight class just to do it. He can take his time and do it the right way, making sure that the move is one that he will stick to for the rest of his career.
Despite clearly having enough new fights to get him through 2013 and beyond, much focus is on Jones in either a superfight with Anderson Silva or a move up in weight to heavyweight.
The potential move up in weight is something that Jones discussed during his Metro PCS fan chat ahead of this past weekend's UFC on Fox 5 card (via MMA Mania):
"I definitely have goals to compete at heavyweight and obviously go for the championship," Jones said in the chat last Saturday evening. "But it's a ways away. Right now I'm cutting weight more efficiently, trying to eat smarter and do things better and the weight cuts are getting easier so, heavyweight might be a ways away."
...
"Fighting Cain would be a great honor in the future," Jones said. "I'm here to fight the best guys and I would love to fight Cain in the future. Not because I don't like him or anything I think he's an awesome guy, but, you know, the competition. That's why I'm here. "
Jon made it clear that he has no designs to compete in both light heavyweight and heavyweight simultaneously, stating that the move to heavyweight would be permanent:
"When I move up to heavyweight I definitely won't be trying to hang on to two belts at the same time," he said. "I'll be focused, you know, strictly on heavyweight."
...
"When I compete at heavyweight I plan on weighing like 240 and I really won't want to get much bigger than that." Jones said in the chat. "I think speed and agility would give me an advantage being smaller than those guys, so."
The thought of Jones vs. Velasquez is exciting, regardless of if Cain manages to beat Junior dos Santos later this month and regain the UFC heavyweight championship. It's an outstanding stylistic match-up.
It's good to see that Jones has his head on straight about the situation. He's still a young man with plenty of time ahead of him in the sport. He's got fights left at 205 so, despite MMA fan impatience, he doesn't need to rush into a new challenge and weight class just to do it. He can take his time and do it the right way, making sure that the move is one that he will stick to for the rest of his career.