Jon Jones long awaited comeback fight could happen before the end of a year if a new rumor is proven to be true.
According to Ariel Helwani the UFC is currently in the midst of negotiations to have Jones make his heavyweight debut against former champion Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 282 in Las Vegas on December 10th.
“If they can get Jones x Miocic done, that’ll be the UFC 282 main,” Helwani wrote on Twitter. “If not, the main will be Prochazka x Teixeira 2. And if they can’t get Jones x Miocic done for 12/10, they’ll set their sights on doing Ngannou x Jones in March, if Ngannou re-signs. Developing.”
Discussions regarding the blockbuster fight are said to be at an early stage, so it remains to be seen if it will actually come to fruition.
If it does happen then by the time Jones steps into the Octagon it will be almost three years since he last did so, beating Dominick Reyes by unanimous decision to rack up his 11th successful title defense before vacating the light-heavyweight belt.
The plan was then to move up to heavyweight, but no-one realized at the time that it would take this long for it to actually happen, with Jones initially taking an extended break to focus on gradually developing his new heavyweight frame, and then hitting a major stumbling block with the UFC regarding the kind of money that he was looking for to compete in the division.
It’s not clear if those financial hurdles have since been resolved, but at 35-years-old Jones most surely feel that he can’t afford to sit on the sidelines for much longer if he really wants to return at the highest level and continue to strengthen his legacy as one of the sport’s all-time greats.
As for Miocic, he’s certainly not getting any younger either, and in fact is now 40-years-old.
Like Jones he’s been out for an extended period, having lost fought back in March of last year, where he suffered a title loss KO against Francis Ngannou.
Before that Miocic had won back-to-back fights against Daniel Cormier, after being beaten by the former double-champ in their first encounter.
In total Miocic enjoyed four successful defenses of the heavyweight title while champion and as such is considered one of the best heavyweights of all-time.
As things stand UFC 282 is already shaping up to have a good line-up, featuring a light-heavyweight title rematch between Jiri Prochazka and Glover Teixeira in addition to numerous other notable fights including Jan Blachowicz vs. Magomed Ankalaev, Robbie Lawler vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio, Darren Till vs. Driscus du Plessis, Alexander Gustafsson vs. Ovince Saint Preux and Bo Nickal vs. Jamie Pickett.
And if they could add Jones vs. Miocic then that would make for a showstopper of a pay-per-view line-up for the UFC to end the year on.
