UFC President Dana White is open to Jon Jones fighting for the UFC Heavyweight Championship, but not until after a title fight between Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou occurs.
According to Nolan King and Ken Hathaway of MMAJunkie, White mentioned that Jones has interest in taking some time off and then entering the heavyweight ranks after vacating the UFC light heavyweight title this week.
White added:
"[Miocic vs. Ngannou] is definitely the fight that's going to happen at heavyweight now. Francis Ngannou had earned that title shot. Then we'll see what happens. We had a matchmaking meeting today. A lot of the top four or five guys are laid out for fights coming up in the fall. We'll see what Jon Jones' timing is to come back and who makes sense for him.
Miocic retained the UFC heavyweight title in the highly anticipated third leg of his trilogy with Daniel Cormier at UFC 252 on Saturday. Miocic won by unanimous decision to improve to 20-3, and Cormier retired after the loss.
The 37-year-old Miocic has now won eight of his past nine fights with his only loss coming against Cormier at UFC 226 two years ago.
With a career record of 26-1 with one no-contest, a strong case can be made for Jones being the greatest UFC fighter of all time. He has won the UFC light heavyweight championship four times (including the interim or vacant 205-pound title twice) and defended it 11 occasions, so the 33-year-old may be looking for a new challenge.
Fighting at heavyweight would be precisely that given the size and strength of some of the top heavyweights such as Miocic and Ngannou.
Jones last fought in February when he beat Dominick Reyes by unanimous decision at UFC 247, but it is unclear at this point when he intends to return to the Octagon.
The 33-year-old Ngannou is 15-3 in his professional career and is riding a four-fight winning streak with victories over Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
His most recent fight was against Rozenstruik at UFC 249 in May, and he won that bout by first-round knockout.
One of Ngannou's only losses came against Miocic at UFC 220 in January 2018 by unanimous decision.
Ngannou is on an impressive roll and has undoubtedly earned his second career title opportunity. Assuming that comes to fruition, either he or Miocic could very well have the biggest fight of their life against Jones the next time out.
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