The current word is that Jon Jones may be lined up against Curtis Blaydes in his comeback fight in March if Francis Ngannou isn’t ready by then, but while that would be a huge opportunity, ‘Razor’ has made it clear that he’d prefer a title shot instead.
“Title shot, that’s the ultimate goal,” Blaydes told Fanatics View. “Jon is just the ultimate consolation, but what you workout for every day is the real belt, not the interim belt. The real belt.”
Nevertheless, while he’s not heard any kind of confirmation from the UFC brass that this is indeed their plan, Blaydes intends to train as if he is going to be facing the former light-heavyweight champion and pound-for-pound great.
“Seeing as how it’s been reported by all these official MMA websites and authors, I think it’s legit, and I’m going to begin preparing when I get home after the holidays. I’ll be in champ mode or the mindset, so I’ll be ready. We’ll see what happens though.”
Blaydes is currently ranked No.3 in the heavyweight division thanks to his current three-fight winning streak, which has seen him claim a unanimous decision victory over Jairzinho Rozenstruik followed by back-to-back TKO victories over Chris Daukaus and Tom Aspinall.
A title shot has so far proved elusive for the 31-year-old though, having previously come very close on two occasions, with a previous four-fight unbeaten run ending in a TKO loss to Francis Ngannou back in 2018, while he ammassed another four wins after that before being KO’d by Derrick Lewis early last year.
As for Jones, he’s only lost once in his entire 28-fight career, and even that defeat was controversial, due to a DQ in a fight against Matt Hamill that he was clearly dominating.
Over the course of his career the 35-year-old Jones has successfully defend the light-heavyweight title 11 times, but he’s never fought at heavyweight before and hasn’t set foot in the Octagon since a decision win over Dominick Reyes in early 2020.
