Yea, definitely. I think that’s going to happen within the next two years. I’ll go up to heavyweight, permanently. But I am looking to take a superfight sooner or later, within the next year. I’m excited for it. I’ve been really thinking about me and Cain Velasquez going at it. I think it’d be huge for the sport. He’s definitely the toughest guy in the division and he’s not that big so I think it’d be a really entertaining fight. Don’t be surprised if you see that sooner or later.Normally when a fighter moves up in weight class, he has to contend with a considerable size disadvantage as his body adjusts to competing with larger opponents, however this is a problem that may not be that much of an issue for Jon Jones. Currently walking around at 230 pounds, he believes that he would only have to put on 10 pounds of muscle mass to compete with some of the strongest heavyweights in the world. Furthermore Jones has one of the longest reach advantages in the UFC with his arms measuring a staggering 84.5 inches, compared to Cain Velasquez’s 77 inches. You’d normally favour the fighter who competes in the higher weight class whenever a superfight is on the cards, but it’d be hard to label Jones as an underdog when you consider the significant size and speed advantage that he holds over almost everyone in the UFC. It’s unclear as to whether Jones would want to take a fight against someone else in the Heavyweight division, before squaring off against Cain Velasquez, but with Jones already talking about wanting a super fight within the next 12 months, it’d certainly appear that Velasquez is on his radar sooner rather than later. With no fight currently booked in for Jones and Alexander Gustafsson scheduled to fight Jimi Manuwa in March, could one more fight against someone like Daniel Cormier set up the superfight with Velasquez? It’d certainly be a bitter sweet event as we’d likely miss out on an epic rematch between Jones and Gustafsson, but as we’ve learnt already this year. You have to take super fights when they are available because in Mixed Martial Arts anything can happen and one win or loss can change everything!
Earlier in the year the UFC was rife with talk of a potential super fight between Anderson Silva and either George St Pierre or Jon Jones to determine the best pound for pound fighter in the world. We all know now that this talk was purely hypothetical as Chris Weidman would go on to beat Anderson Silva in one of the biggest upsets in the history of Mixed Martial Arts. Dana White has since said that there’s no chance of a super fight happening any time soon, due to Silva’s loss, but Jon Jones may have sparked up the discussion with comments at a recent UFC promotional event in Toronto.
At the event Jones openly spoke to fans and media about his plans to permanently move up in weight class within 2 years, leading to an inevitable super fight with current UFC Heavyweight champion, Cain Velasquez.
When asked about a change in weight class and potential super fight opponents, this is what he had to say…
