Jon Jones may or may not continue fighting beyond UFC 309, but if he does, the reigning heavyweight champion has declared he would be willing to return for one more fight against light heavyweight king Alex Pereira over Tom Aspinall.
Complicating Jones’ wish is the 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 career beyond Saturday night’s main event, many (perhaps even the majority of) fans and pundits believe he should unify the title with Aspinall, UFC CEO Dana White among them. But as far Jones is concerned, those people are simply misguided.
“Well, the interim championship shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” Jones said Monday in an interview with Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter. “The only reason there was an interim championship fight was because I got hurt, and they needed to keep 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 first place. They should’ve just been a replacement fight, a main event. I think making it an interim fight was premature, and now you 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” as the matchup that will help his legacy more, which is important to him. After all, it’s why Jones is fighting Miocic, who’s widely considered the greatest heavyweight of all time, instead of Aspinall, despite the former champ’s three-and-a-half-year layoff.
Pereira, who’s the same age as Jones (37), brings even more to the table in terms of credentials, having claimed the UFC middleweight title by knocking out Israel Adesanya before he moved up to Jones’ old stomping grounds of light heavyweight and winning four 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 in order to make a Pereira showdown happen.
“It’d be cool to fight (Pereira) for the heavyweight championship, but I would also willingly give up the heavyweight championship,” Jones said. “I walked away from the light heavyweight championship, and I’d love to walk away from this one, as well, on top, on (my) own terms, good head on (my) shoulders, making lots of money. I love the position that I’m in right now.”
Jones even has an idea for the UFC to consider should a fight with Pereira come to fruition.
“Fighting Pereira for the BMF belt, that’d be cool,” Jones said. “We both have two belts in two weight classes. The night we fought, we’d both be fighting for our third belt, which would be the BMF. How cool would that be?”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.
