News about Jon Jones just keep on coming, after it was confirmed that the Light-heavyweight champion was making a comeback. While details about his much-anticipated return are yet to be revealed, a new report has suggested that ‘Bones’ has signed an 8-fight-long deal with the UFC.
For his first fight, Jones will take on Cyril Gane who is a unique prospect in the heavyweight division. Despite fighting in the highest weight division, Gane walks around with the speed and flexibility of a welterweight and picks his shots as carefully as a lightweight. Such fighters are rare in his division with Tom Aspinall seemingly the only other contender.
On the other hand, Jones has been discussing his move to heavyweight for nearly a decade now. His last fight at Light-heavyweight was held in 2020 against Dominic Reyes where he picked up an extremely controversial win. After that fight, Jon took a hiatus from the sport and began putting up muscle for his comeback.
Jones’s manager talked about his matchup against Gane in an interview saying, “I do believe that these are the two best heavyweights [Jones vs. Gane] fighting each other, and it’s a massive fight. That’s what the focus is. You can’t go and cry over ‘could have been’ or things like that… I personally, by the way, feel that Ciryl, with his skillset…is a bigger fight than Francis would have been.”
Who should Jon Jones face next?
Of course, whoever Jones fights next will be determined partially based on the result of his fight against Cyril. But we have taken this opportunity to speculate,
Firstly, we have to mention Stipe Miocic. A matchup against Miocic was already discussed across the MMA world. Jones himself wanted Stipe to sign the contract but the deal was not finalized in the end. Now the former champ wants to take another shot at the title against the winner of Jones vs Gane.
Sergei Pavlovich has been touted as the next Francis Ngannou owing to his tremendous knockout power. All his wins came in the first round and it would be interesting to see how he stacks up against an intelligent fighter like Jones.
Who do you want to see fight Jon Jones?
