Jon Jones Looking For Superfight Against Cain Velasquez Within A Year
UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones was arguably the most dominant champion in mixed martial arts before his UFC 165 tilt with Alexander Gustafsson. “The Mauler” gave “Bones” a challenge that few saw coming, battering him like no other previous opponent had even come close to.
Ultimately Jones won a highly controversial unanimous decision over Gustafsson. It was immediately thought that “Bones” would grant Gustafsson a rematch, but after reviewing the bout the champ decided he had clearly won. He deemed his best course of action was to move on to a fight with number one contender Glover Teixeira.
The bout was tentatively rumored for UFC 169 in February, and then pushed back to UFC 170 at the end of the same month. Last week, news came that Jones was still on the mend from a left foot injury suffered against Gustafsson and would target a March or April return.
But with the Teixeira fight still waiting for a concrete date, Jones spoke up yesterday to clarify some absolutely huge plans of a different nature. When MMA Digest caught up with Jones at a Q&A, the champ was asked about his long-rumored move to Heavyweight. His response:
“Yeah 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, so, yeah, I am excited for it. I’ve really been thinking about me and Cain Velasquez going at it, I think it’d be huge for the sport. I think it would be a really entertaining fight, so don’t be surprised if you see that sooner or later.”
Indeed that would be an entertaining fight. Jones still needs to heal up from his nagging injuries and defeat Teixeira. Losing the Light Heavyweight belt to either Teixeira or Gustafsson, who many feel will inevitably challenge for the belt again, would take away a lot of the thunder surrounding a potentially massive Jones vs. Velasquez bout.
Jones said he would likely need to put on about ten pounds of muscle to contend with Velasquez, who has never been regarded as a big Heavyweight. “Bones” has often been linked to a superfight with former UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva; now he’s upping the ante.
A Jones vs. Velasquez superfight would undoubtedly be one of the biggest MMA fights to ever go down. It may or may not be contested for the Heavyweight championship. That much unclear at this early stage of the game, but one thing is clear: fans may soon be treated to one of the biggest possible matchups the UFC could ever put together.
Outer Photo: Tom Szczerbowski for USA TODAY Sports
