Jon Jones told to be courageous and call out Sergei Pavlovich

Jon Jones won the UFC heavyweight title in his divisional debut earlier this year, tapping out Ciryl Gane in the first round. That was Jones’ first action since he beat Dominick Reyes to defend his UFC light heavyweight title in early 2020.

Jones now seems set to take on former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic in a fight in Madison Square Garden on a date to be determined. When Jones teased that match-up he suggested that this could be his retirement fight. However, retirements in MMA are oft discussed (and even declared), but rarely followed through.

Sergei Pavlovich is waiting for a title shot

If Jones’ does beat Miocic next and decides to stick around there will be a number of men hoping to fight him next for the belt. One of those is Sergei Pavlovich, who put the division on notice with his destruction of Curtis Blaydes in the main event of UFC Vegas 71 this past Saturday.

After dispatching of Blaydes with a TKO, Pavlovich stated his intention to now wait for the winner of Jones and Miocic.

Jon Jones would be ‘courageous’ to fight Sergei Pavlovich

One person who hopes to see Pavlovich standing opposite Jones in the cage is former UFC light heavyweight and middleweight title challenger (and former Jones’ opponent) Chael Sonnen.

Sonnen has implored Jones to take a fight with Pavlovich, for legacy’s sake.

“I’d like to see Jon call for it, I don’t know if I’ll get my way,” said Sonnen (ht BJPenn).

“I can’t fault Jon, I’d like to, but I can’t, it’s not his job. He’s the champion, it’s not his job. But of all the things that Jon has done that no other man could do and that other people said couldn’t be done. If he, at 35 , calls out the leader of the pack of the next era, who without question is named Sergei Pavlovich. If he does that, it’s going to be something special. There’s a credit there, a courage there, and a competitiveness there, that Jon would deserve to be recognized for.”

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Tim Bissell

Tim Bissell is a writer, editor and deputy site manager for Bloody Elbow. He has covered combat sports since 2015. Tim covers news and events and has also written longform and investigative pieces. Among Tim's specialties are the intersections between crime and combat sports. Tim has also covered head trauma, concussions and CTE in great detail.

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