According to a report on MMATorch.com on Saturday, UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones believes that a move to the UFC's heavyweight division may possibly come as early as this year. Friday he discussed it again, saying that the move may come quicker than many may have believed.
"I think heavyweight is going to come along around 2014 – maybe even late this year," Jones said on Friday during a fan Q&A in Chicago prior to the UFC on Fox 6 weigh-ins. "Who knows. It'll definitely be a fight for the fans."
However, there is one fighter he could meet at heavyweight that he prefers to face in his current weight class.
"[Daniel Cormier] is going to have to come and get me," Jones said of the Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix winner, who has called him out multiple times in the last several months.. "He talked all that trash – I'm going to make him cut that weight."
Jones did concede that it will be a tremendous challenge dealing with the size differences he is likely to face in the heavier division, a place where many fighters cut weight just to make the 265 lb. maximum. But it's a challenge he insists he is ready to accept.
"I would love to face [Alistair Overeem]," he said. "I would fight anybody, any time. I'm just a lot smaller than those guys [at heavyweight]. I know that it would be a major challenge to fight one of those guys being the size I am right now."
Time will tell if Jones does indeed test the waters in the heavyweight division. Before he makes the move, however, it is likely he will need to face a few more fighters at light heavyweight before it can be said he has truly cleaned out the division. Chael Sonnen is already scheduled to challenge Jones, and after that, Dan Henderson, Glover Teixeira, Alexander Gustafsson, and now Gegard Mousasi all possibly stand in his way. If he manages to steamroll his way through all of them, then it is indeed likely we will see him take a step up.
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