After a turbulent year that saw an ugly — and public — back and forth, Dana White says his relationship with Jon Jones has finally been mended. The UFC President says he spoke with the long time light heavyweight champion, who he says is “excited for this challenge” of moving up to heavyweight.
“Jon Jones has been in the UFC, 10 plus years. Jon Jones and I had the best conversation we’ve ever had about a week ago, and he’s ready,” White told BT Sport. “He’s ready to come back. His head’s in the right place, and he and I are in a really good place.”
White has routinely used lines claiming an athlete “didn’t want to fight” when they try to negotiate, but with the change in tune and saying Jones is now “ready,” it seems like monetary issues have been somewhat resolved.
The UFC President didn’t reveal an opponent just yet for Jones, but he did make it clear that Francis Ngannou is the rightful number one contender to Stipe Miocic’s belt.
“No, he doesn’t get to jump over Francis and fight for the title. I don’t know what we’re going to do yet, or how it’s going to play out, but we’re working on it,” he said. “He’s excited for this challenge. He’s excited to cement his legacy as the greatest to ever do it.”
Somewhere down the line, White revealed that he wants to pit Jones against the middleweight champion in Israel Adesanya.
“(Jones vs Adesanya is) the fight I would love to see,” White said. “Somebody asked me yesterday if you could make one fight in 2021 – that’s the fight that I picked.”
That being said, White says that it will probably be a super-fight between Adesanya and Jan Blachowicz next, confirming that he’ll jump over Glover Teixeira and get a title fight at light heavyweight.
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