MMA fans who have seen Jon Jones ’recent posts on social media know that he is almost ready to compete in heavyweights.
He has stated that he weighs around 240 pounds and, at 6 feet-4, the former UFC light heavyweight champion is looking to incorporate more muscle into his frame. You should be ready to compete in a few months in the desired way, but right?
While it makes sense to fight for the heavyweight championship for Jones, who is possibly the greatest mixed martial artist in history, the image of the division title is a bit bleak.
Champion Stipe Miocic is expected to defend against top candidate Francis Ngannou, possibly in March, but that fight has not been made official. Would Jones be willing to fight again in the meantime when he enters a new division?
Meanwhile, Tony Ferguson is another great veteran whose future is a bit unclear.
Ferguson saw his 12-win streak against Justin Gaethje end in May, and Charles Oliveira waxed him in UFC 256 on December 12th. Suddenly, the guy he couldn’t lose had trouble even winning a round in 2020.
Ferguson no longer appears in the title image. He is simply a fighter who wants to get back on track. But at 36, is it too late for Ferguson to become a dominant force again?
ESPN expert group Ariel Helwani, Brett Okamoto, Marc Raimondi, and Jeff Wagenheim discuss these issues and more, breaking down what is real and what is not real.
Real or not: Jon Jones won’t be waiting for Stipe Miocic-Francis Ngannou winner to make his heavyweight debut.
Helwani: I certainly should and the UFC would prefer that too. Nor does it look like Jones is campaigning or itching to fight before fighting for the heavyweight title.
Here’s the deal: The UFC wants Stipe Miocic to defend the heavyweight title against Francis Ngannou in March. In fact, UFC representatives recently met with Miocic in hopes of ending the title fight. The fight for the title is not yet a done deal, but that’s definitely what the promotion wants, they tell me.
In a perfect world, the UFC would like the winner of this fight to defend the belt against Jones in the summer, sources said. Now, when you consider that Miocic has promoted one fight per year for the past three years and that Ngannou (through no fault of his own) seems to be fighting for about 30 seconds a year, this should be a welcome plan for everyone. I can see Ngannou making this quick change, but historically Miocic didn’t like it.
However, this is what the UFC wants. And that’s what I should want. It would be a big mistake to reserve Jones against a non-champion at this time. If he loses, he loses Jones ’big money fight looking for a second title. Why risk it now, especially since Jones has looked human to the end and we don’t know how he’s going to get along with the big ones? Not worth it. Jones vs. Miocic-Ngannou winner is a massive fight. It is the struggle to be made.
Jones vs. a heavyweight contender is fun, no doubt, but without a connected belt it doesn’t feel that great.
Book Miocic-Ngannou in March, I hope the winner isn’t too hit and then give us Jones fighting for the heavyweight belt this summer. Don’t tell Israel Adesanya this plan …
Real or not: Tony Ferguson’s days as a lightweight candidate are over.
Okamoto: It breaks my heart to say it, but I have to go with real here. Before his fight last week against Charles Oliveira, I, like many others, said it was a crossroads battle for Ferguson at 36 years old. I said everything was at his disposal in UFC 256. And he dominated the fight. How can I come back this week and still call him a lightweight candidate? Now, if Ferguson has a year back in 2021, I will be shocked? No, it’s not like your skill set has dropped or your ability to punch is gone.
I don’t count it at all to move forward. But now he has been dominated in consecutive fights and was dominated in two very different ways. Justin Gaethje destroyed him a lot in May and Oliveira took him badly in December. And there are so many hungry lightweights waiting on the wings to take a place among the top 5 that have belonged to Ferguson for years.
At this point, I think it’s reasonable to say that Ferguson will have a hard time keeping these guys and keeping their place in peak order. It has long been one of the best light weights in the world, and nothing that happened this year has changed my mind about how good it was during that time, but when it comes to talking about it at the level of championship, those days could very well have ended.
Real or not: if Khabib Nurmagomedov fights in 2021, he is more likely to face GSP than Conor McGregor.
Raimondi: Very real. Nurmagomedov has made it quite clear. He sees no competitive reason for a McGregor rematch. Nurmagomedov stopped McGregor in the fourth round by presenting his UFC title fight at UFC 229 on October 6, 2018. In his mind, the UFC lightweight champion doesn’t believe he has anything. more to prove from a sporting standpoint against the biggest UFC star. Nurmagomedov has said that the only thing the UFC could offer him to fight McGregor again is a lot of money, but Nurmagomedov has shown time and time again that he puts his personal principles above the almighty dollar. In many cases, this could be considered a lip service, but not with Khabib.
I think the only fight that would make Nurmagomedov return to the Octagon would be an inheritance against Georges St-Pierre. This has been said many times, but it is true. Go back and listen and read old interviews – from years ago – with Nurmagomedov and his late father Abdulmanap. The Nurmagomedovs placed St-Pierre on a pedestal. Khabib believes that GSP is the best fighter in the history of MMA. With Nurmagomedov now sitting at 29-0, what better way to end a race than to face St-Pierre, the former UFC middleweight and welterweight champion, with the chance to make him a perfect 30?
The only other fight that could make sense for Nurmagomedov’s return was Tony Ferguson’s ill-fated fight. But Ferguson went 0-2 in 2020 and it doesn’t look like the man who wanted to fight Nurmagomedov in the first place. I really think that, at least for now, Nurmagomedov will remain retired unless the UFC manages to withdraw St-Pierre from the withdrawal for what would be an absolute megafelt. Weight wouldn’t even matter.
Real or not: Rose Namajunas will challenge the straw title in 2021 and win it.
Wagenheim: The first part of that it should be real. Namajunas is the No. 1 candidate in straw weight, the division in which she used to reign. She is in the top 5 of ESPN’s women’s pound-for-pound ranking, one place below 115-pound champion Zhang Weili. Namajunas has won four of his last five fights and gets a July win over Jessica Andrade, the woman who took his belt off last year. Namajunas has won his title and, according to what his fiancé / coach, Pat Barry, told ESPN last week, he wants that shot.
Why did Barry have to go out and declare the obvious? As UFC president Dana White had previously told BT Sport, “Rose doesn’t want to fight for the title.”
Maybe it was just a communication mix. Again, a few months ago, White said Jon Jones didn’t want to fight Francis Ngannou after Jones asked for more money to take on the heavy KO artist. Reversing the script to put the obligation on the athlete is a smart way to unleash contempt on social media for someone who doesn’t climb. Who knows if the UFC boss was trying with Namajunas? Suffice it to say that there would be a lot of contempt that would bounce back against White if he chose to book the £ 115 alternative match for the title he suggested: Zhang vs. Carla Esparza.
Like Namajunas, Esparza is a former champion. In fact, he won the belt with a victory by submission to none other than “Thug Rose.” But that came back in 2014. In 2021, even with Esparza in a four-win streak, he doesn’t belong in any championship as Namajunas walks the planet waiting for his.
So I’m going to post what I feel is a pretty tough tip and I will predict that Zhang vs. Namajunas will navigate some choppy communication waters and it will be a real thing.
And it will turn out to be a great title, perhaps even a classic like everyone’s 2020 fight, Zhang vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Namajunas come out of the Octagon that night with the belt on, but I have to pick Zhang. She’s so solid in every aspect of the game, from skills to grain, and with just five UFC fights on her resume, she seems to be just scratching the surface of what she can become.