Jon Jones may have interest in fighting at heavyweight, but Daniel Cormier thinks he's putting the cart before the horse.
Since his first UFC fight in 2008, it seemed inevitable Jon Jones would move up to heavyweight because of the size of his body. He has teased the notion in the past of making the leap.
“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 a 2012 interview with Bloody Elbow.
Beyond a fight with Anthony Johnson and rematches against light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson, there's few challenges that remain for Jones at 205 pounds.
After Stipe Miocic retained the heavyweight title over Alistair Overeem at UFC 203, the interim light heavyweight champ took to his Twitter page to express his desire to one day fight the Croatian.
I'm starting to realize the hype is real with that guy. He's legit, I would be the challenge of a lifetime https://t.co/ybke2pAtAC
— Jon Bones Jones (@JonnyBones) September 12, 2016
Someone who took note of Jones' comments was his longtime rival, Daniel Cormier.
On this week's edition of UFC Tonight, Cormier gave his opinion on the matter. While he feels Jones would do well against Miocic, the New York fighter is currently suspended for failing a drug test before UFC 200. If someone should move up to fight for the biggest prize in the UFC, Cormier thinks it should be himself.
“Obviously he’d do well if he fought for the heavyweight championship, but the guy’s not eligible to compete," Cormier said. "If they’re going to let a guy go up and fight in a fight, I’d do it. Why not me? I’m the one who’s here competing. The question is: what would I do after I beat Stipe? I’d probably hand the belt over to Cain Velasquez, because I want none of those problems.”
Miocic won't be fighting anytime soon as he stated after UFC 203 that he is taking off the rest of 2016. Cormier doesn't have a fight scheduled but has expressed interest in a rematch against Johnson.
