Luke Rockhold Calls For Jon Jones If He Wins Next Fight

Luke Rockhold is more than willing to step into the Octagon against Jon Jones, and has now called his shot.

That’s not to say that he wouldn’t wait should his teammate and good friend UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier decide to fight Jones for the third time. A possible fight between Jones and Cormier has been talked about at heavyweight should it get booked. 

Rockhold stated in a recent interview with Submission Radio that if Cormier doesn’t fight Jones next then he’s up for the challenge to dethrone Jones as the UFC light heavyweight champion:

“Jon Jones is right there and I’m not looking to dance around too long,” Rockhold said. “If there’s an opportunity and things work out, I perform, he performs, you never know. There’s a lot of history with a matchup like that. I’ve been there through many training camps for Jon Jones so we’ll see. I’m going to go out there and fight my fight and Jon’s got to win his fight.”

“I’m fighting before ‘DC,’ I’m going to take my dibs if the opportunity presents itself,” Rockhold said. “‘DC,’ I think it’s foolish for him to try to challenge Jon back down, I think Jon should have to come challenge him up for the heavyweight title. That’s where their natural weight is. Jon is a big guy, he cuts a lot of weight too to get down.

“Jon is scared to fight ‘DC’ at heavyweight. I don’t know why ‘DC’ thinks he’s got to come back down and fight him to prove some point. It doesn’t make sense.”

A few months ago, Rockhold made it known that he is ready to make his move to the UFC light heavyweight division after having a successful run at middleweight. During his time in the 185-pound division, he won the middleweight title, only to drop it in his first defense against Michael Bisping.

Both fighters will be competing at the upcoming UFC 239 pay-per-view (PPV) event. The show is set to take place on Saturday, July 6, 2019, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jones makes his next title defense as UFC light heavyweight champion against Thiago Santos in the main event. On the flip side, Rockhold meets Jan Blachowicz in a light heavyweight clash, his first in the weight class.