Rising UFC heavyweight contender Chris Daukaus isn't quite sure if the UFC will grant former light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, an immediate title shot once he makes the move to heavyweight in 2022.
Daukaus spoke with reporters during the media day for this Saturday night's UFC Vegas 45 event and ahead of his headlining bout against Derrick Lewis. The 32-year old Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native responded with the following when asked what he thought about Jones' potentially jumping the line at heavyweight to get a shot at UFC gold.
“I kind of think that Jon just has some personal demons that he needs to work out," Daukaus said (h/t MMA Fighting). "He just continues to shoot himself in the foot. He has all the physical abilities and things like that to be the greatest of all time at 205 [pounds] and it would be foolish of me to think that he couldn’t do that at a different weight class. I just think Jon Jones is in Jon’s way. I hope Jon figures it out, not just for his career life but outside for his personal life outside of fighting. At the end of the day, it’s like, who are you going home to and you don’t want to go home to create that drama at your house with your wife and your kids. He needs to get out of his way. I honestly think he needs a complete change in his life. If Jon really wants to make a change in his life, he’s going to have to completely reinvent himself. Everyone thought he was going to reinvent himself when he was going to heavyweight but he reinvented himself in his career but not in his personal life. I think he needs to actually sit back and take an unbiased look at his life and why does this keep happening?”
He continued on to talk about how his sole focus is on Derrick Lewis and knows a win over the former UFC heavyweight title challenger will only help vault him into that top five ranking amongst the division.
“My sole focus is Derrick,” Daukaus said (h/t MMA Junkie). “No one knows what the hell’s going on with the heavyweight elite, at the top three people. I mean, you’ve got Francis and Ciryl fighting in January, and you don’t know if there’s going to be an immediate rematch. You don’t know what Stipe (Miocic) is doing if he’s holding out for a title shot. You don’t know what he’s doing. And then, freakin’ Jon Jones, his name always gets brought up, but he hasn’t fought in four years or however long he’s fought, so I’m not holding my breath for him, either. The only thing I have to do is just get a win. I get the win, my name gets right where his was – top three, top four in the division, and then we’ll go from there about who we’re going to fight because I don’t see a lot of people I have to fight before I get to the belt.”
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