Jon Jones

UFC President Dana White believes Dominick Reyes would be an ideal next opponent for Jon Jones.

Jones recently discussed his prospects for a next fight on social media, saying he would be keen for a "super fight" after his most recent split-decision success over Thiago Santos.

Speaking to TMZ, White was quizzed on what he thought would be next for Jones and proposed a showdown with Reyes "makes sense."

"He just came off an impressive win over [Chris] Weidman," White said. "A lot of people saw it; [it] pulled good ratings on TV. It's the fight to make."

Reyes is 6-0 since joining the UFC (12-0 overall), with his win over Weidman one of his most impressive performances. The 29-year-old stopped his opponent in the opening round with a flurry of big hits:

As TMZ relayed, Reyes has previously called out Jones. "I got these hands," he said. "I got this heart. I'm Mexican. He's never fought a Mexican. I'm tough as s--t, and I'm never gonna stop!"

MMA Fighting's Mike Chiappetta said he thinks Reyes would represent a challenge for Jones:

Whether the UFC Light Heavyweight champion would want to make the fight appears to be another matter.

Jones tweeted that he feels he has "nothing to gain by beating Dominick."

Jones, one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, was far from his best in his last outing. Previously, he'd secured comfortable wins over Anthony Smith and Alexander Gustafsson.

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones isn't sure when he'll next be back in the Octagon, noting he wants a "super fight" to get excited about.

Jones is widely regarded as one of the best MMA fighters of all time. Since making his return to the sport in December 2018, he's won three fights in succession, the most recent a split-decision success against Thiago Santos.

On Wednesday, Jones conducted a Q&A with his Twitter followers and replied to a question regarding his next UFC fight by saying that he wants a noteworthy opponent to lure him back into action:

Jones referred to Dominick Reyes, who called out the champion after his win over Chris Weidman on Oct. 19.

The 32-year-old added that he's struggled to get motivated for some of his recent contests and commented on the lack of superstar names in the light heavyweight division (includes profanity): 

Jones also mentioned the prospect of taking a hiatus from competing in fights for a couple of years and then returning for a run at the title: 

The 32-year-old has been involved in some of the biggest fights in the sport in recent years, with two showdowns against Daniel Cormier coming at the end of ill-tempered buildups.

Jones beat Cormier in their first meeting at UFC 182 via unanimous decision and won the second contest at UFC 214 by knockout initially, although the bout was later ruled a no-contest after Jones tested positive for turinabol.

Jones' fight with Alexander Gustafsson in December captured the attention of a lot of fans, as it was a rematch of one of the toughest tests of the champions' career. However, the subsequent clashes with Anthony Smith and Santos haven't triggered too much buzz.

As noted by ESPN's Ariel Helwani, the natural next fight for Jones does appear to be Reyes after his impressive sequence of wins:

However, it appears Jones has little interest in trading insults with Reyes, never mind going toe-to-toe with him in the Octagon.

Anthony Johnson has said he will do what he can to make the light heavyweight limit and set up a fight with Jon Jones.

The man known as Rumble confirmed earlier this year he was set to return to the MMA scene following a two-and-a-half-year break from the sport.

Speaking about his comeback with Below the Belt (h/t Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting), the 35-year-old Johnson said he is eyeing a fight with Jones if his body can handle the weight cut:

"We'll make it happen if I get low enough. We'll fight at 205. That's a fight I wanted. I think Jon wanted that fight too, before everything happened.

"That situation, which, it's over with, it's in the past. When we see each other, there's no animosity between each other. We show each other love, you know what I mean? But that was a fight; that's why I went up to 205, man."

Jones and Johnson were set to fight at UFC 187, but the former was stripped of the light heavyweight title after being involved in a hit-and-run, and the bout was called off.

In place of Jones, Daniel Cormier stepped in to fight Rumble, and Cormier was the stronger man on the night, clinching the light heavyweight title after forcing a submission. He was also the winner when the duo met at UFC 210 in 2017—Johnson's last fight before his hiatus.

Speaking about the meeting with Cormier at UFC 187, Rumble said "the fire wasn't in me to fight DC," because he was so keen to test himself against Jones.

After the second fight, he announced in the Octagon that he was retiring from the sport:

Since making his own comeback in December 2018, the 32-year-old Jones has won three straight fights. He knocked out Alexander Gustafsson, beat Anthony Smith by unanimous decision and edged past Thiago Santos via a split decision in his most recent bout.

Santos put a huge physical toll on his body to come close to beating Jones:

Johnson was renowned for his brutal power during his time in the UFC, and aside from his two losses to Cormier, Rumble stopped his last five opponents inside the distance after some heavy striking. 

If he's able to retain that strength after another weight cut and some time off, it'd be intriguing to see how Jones would cope. However, while he may not have been at his best against Silva, the current light heavyweight champion is one of the best fighters of all time for a reason.

Israel Adesanya is the best striker in MMA. On Saturday night, a bolt of that brilliant combat lightning struck Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.

In front of the largest crowd in UFC history, the Nigerian New Zealander knocked out Robert Whittaker with a surgical double-hook combination in the second round of the main event of UFC 243. The Last Stylebender is now 18-0 in MMA and a remarkable 7-0 over 20 tornadic months beneath the UFC banner.

He was the interim UFC middleweight champion coming in, but he's not anymore. After making mincemeat of a decorated veteran in Whittaker, Adesanya is now the undisputed king at 185 pounds.

"We had everything from his plan A, plan B, plan C. In this fight we had it all the way up to Z," a seriously wired Adesanya told broadcaster Jon Anik in the cage after the fight. "Man, it's unreal. I've said this s--t for so long. I have no knockout power? ... I ate it and I gave it back two times."

Adesanya grew fractionally more serious when he discussed what would come next. Brazilian knockout artist and movie hunk Paulo Costa, aka Paulo Borrachinha, who spent the week antagonizing the whole of Oceania, looked on cageside as the new champ pointed in his direction.

"You know who's next," Adesanya told Anik. "I got this overinflated balloon animal, Borrachinha."

It was the only mistake he made all night.

Even as he verbally sparred with Borrachinha, a far bigger quarry was lurking close by. And darned if the quarry didn't leap full out of the water earlier this week and land right in Adesanya's boat. That's right: UFC light heavyweight champion and consensus pound-for-pound king Jon Jones. It was an organic back-and-forth that came to a frothy and public head just days before this fight. That's where the heat is, and that's where Adesanya's gaze should fall now. We'll get back to that in a minute.

But for now, back to Marvel Stadium, where Adesanya set the tone with his walkout. A former competitive dancer, the interim champ broke out a routine with some old dancing buddies before sauntering on toward the Octagon. Are you not entertained? You know you were.

When the fight begins, Adesanya, like his idol Anderson Silva, likes to start slow. The opening minutes saw him take a placid approach, a calm matador to Whittaker's onrushing bull. Normally one to stay tighter and more within himself, Whittaker lunged forward, perhaps taking a page from Adesanya's previous opponent, Kelvin Gastelum, who lost to Stylebender in April but still took him five bruising rounds behind a steady diet of forward pressure. 

But Adesanya learned something too. As he sought to establish his own range, he ensured he stayed clear of Whittaker, deftly slipping and rolling to make sure none of those haymakers landed flush. Then, in the literal final second of the round, Adesanya landed a single counter right hook that dumped Whittaker onto his backside. Remember that strike.

In the second, Adesanya started to open up, and Whittaker began to bleed. That counter right was in full effect alongside body work and a couple of high kicks. The last of those counter rights landed with about three-and-a-half minutes left, at the end point of yet another, increasingly ragged Whittaker blitz. It was the beginning of the end. The end of the end was the left hook that followed a half-second later.

It was surreal to watch one of the toughest competitors on the UFC roster—the same guy who outlasted Cuban thunder god Yoel Romero not once but twice—crouch backward on rubber legs and fall to the mat as if crushing an invisible chaise lounge. Adesanya swarmed and landed a hammerfist or two, but Whittaker clearly didn't know where he was, and referee Marc Goddard rightly stepped in for the stoppage.

Is Whittaker's chin gone after years of brutal wars? Maybe. All we know right now is that no one has ever done him that way before.

It was superior work, and it more than earned Adesanya the right to his trademark playfulness (some might say silliness?) both before and after the competition. As his family and friends flooded the cage, Adesanya draped his new belt over his mother's shoulder.

A storybook night, right? Sure—right up until that callout.

The heat between Jones and Adesanya is more than marketing. There's genuine grit to it. Are both these guys self-promoters? We know they are. But that doesn't mean a grudge can't be based on something substantive, a dark pearl grown from a single grain of agitation.

We know Adesanya isn't exactly afraid of the spotlight. And you know what? The UFC kinda needs someone like that right now. And you know what else? Go ahead and replace "kinda" with "desperately." Jones is an MMA genius but doesn't have the world's highest Q-rating. These days, Conor McGregor's fights happen in bars and courtrooms. Daniel Cormier has one foot out the door.

This company needs a new star. If Adesanya faces Jones, he could be that new face. He could also become just the eighth fighter to hold two UFC title belts at the same time. Silva dabbled at light heavyweight, but that was before the "champ champ" era of greater divisional fluidity, ushered in by McGregor and others. Might Adesanya see this as a chance to render himself as a kind of fourth-dimensional version of his MMA hero? Adesanya could become the first person to defeat Jones by way of something other than an extremely fluky DQ. Might that fast-track him to legend status? 

Plenty of people will argue it's too soon for Adesanya. That's not unreasonable. But what is he really risking? If Adesanya loses, Jones remains the person we thought he was, and Adesanya returns to the business of plowing through his "natural" weight class. Jones turns 34 in 2021—still his prime, perhaps, but it's the tail end of a typical window. Do you think Adesanya wants to field the ducking questions that will surely accompany this fight if they have it, say, two years down the road? And sure, Jones is more experienced with MMA, but after what Adesanya just did to Whittaker, I'm not betting against Adesanya given a suitable camp and the chance to properly move up to 205 pounds.

That's all the logical stuff. But the massive heat around it, which culminated over fight week, is the reason why the wheels should go into motion now. 

Let's take a quick walk back in time, shall we?

It started in July, when Adesanya claimed Jones hasn't looked the same since the UFC instituted strict drug-testing policies. He also referenced Jones' semi-recent drug test drama, which resulted in a suspension and a last-minute venue change to save Jones' December 2018 fight with Alexander Gustafsson.

"I saw him live [in Jones' win over Thiago Santos]. He doesn't have it," Adesanya said on ESPN's Ariel Helwani's MMA Show. "He was great when he was fighting and there wasn't [drug testing agency] USADA around, but now the man needs to get back on the pictograms if he wants to be great again."

In an interview this week, Adesanya went so far as to call his shot—and a pretty gutsy shot at that. He predicted a date with Jones in a football stadium that hasn't even been constructed yet.

"I wouldn't say [Jones] is the ultimate, but he's definitely a boss on the game that I want to play against," Adesanya told The Mac Life. "Raiders Stadium, Las Vegas, that's where it's going to happen. I decided in July when I was in Vegas. Probably—the middleweight division's getting stacked. I like [Jared] Cannonier right now. [Paulo] Costa I got to take care of, and a few others. I'm saying 2021."

That was apparently a bridge too far for Jones, who took to Twitter to respond to Adesanya. (Warning: language NSFW)

When asked about that tweetstorm in yet another interview with The Mac Life on Thursday, Adesanya, seeming satisfied with getting inside Jones' head, opined that Jones "f--ked himself up by f--king around and tarnishing his own legacy. And I'm just doing me. I just have to keep doing me."

Adesanya's in for the fight. Jones would appear to be in. But it doesn't mean anything without the blessing of the biggest of the UFC's big men. 

"Those guys have been talking smack back and forth," UFC President Dana White recently told Sky Sport New Zealand (h/t MMA Junkie). "If Israel wins and he really does want to fight Jon Jones, that's a really big fight."

Well observed. At this point, 2021 might be too long a wait. After this win, Adesanya's at a real, true peak, and it's coinciding with a real, true feud with the real, true GOAT. 

The UFC and all other parties should strike while the iron is hot. Jones is the iron, Adesanya is the striker, and the fight community might be poised to forge a new superstar.

Scott Harris is a feature writer and MMA columnist for Bleacher Report.  

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has tweeted he's "not in any trouble" amid reports he's been charged with battery over an alleged altercation in a strip club in April.

KRQE 13's Jeannie Nguyen reported the news, adding a spokesperson for Jones informed the outlet they were previously unaware of any charges.

Jones took to Twitter after the news broke:

Per the report, Albuquerque Police have stated a cocktail waitress said Jones "slapped her inappropriately," pulled her on his lap, kissed her on her neck and held her in a chokehold. "When she told him to stop, Jones allegedly kept touching her until he decided to leave," the report continues.

The report also stated Jones, 32, didn't show up for a bond arraignment in June, and a bench warrant was issued as a result.

James Hallinan, a spokesperson for the Jackson Wink MMA Academy, refuted the allegations and explained why Jones was absent from the bond arraignment:

"Today, the media told Mr. Jones about a false accusation launched against him and that paperwork had been sent to an incorrect address. However, after receiving the documents from the press, Mr. Jones immediately went to pay the small fee, and he, and multiple witnesses, stand ready to factually refute the malicious lies being told about him to the public."

Bloody Elbow's Nick Baldwin noted the bench warrant was lifted after Jones paid his bond Sunday. He also summarized Jones' history of legal trouble, which includes a 2015 hit-and-run involving a pregnant woman and a 2012 charge for driving while intoxicated.

Inside the Octagon, Jones has recorded three wins in seven months since returning to the sport in late December. He had been inactive since a win over rival Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 in July 2017, a result that was later overturned to a no-contest after a positive drug test.

His last win came at UFC 239 earlier this month versus Brazil's Thiago Santos by split decision.

If Greg Hardy's mixed martial arts career goes the way he hopes, one day it will provide him with an opportunity to challenge Jon Jones.

Speaking to TMZ Sports, Hardy said "it's impossible not to dream" of a match against Jones and "it would be an honor and a pleasure to go to war with him."

There's a long way for Hardy to go before he will get a shot against Jones. The former NFL star has five career MMA fights, including two in UFC. He's had success against lower-level competition with four wins by knockout. He has one disqualification loss for throwing an illegal knee to a downed opponent. 

Another potential obstacle for Hardy is being a heavyweight fighter. Jones has only fought at light-heavyweight, though he told ESPN's Ariel Helwani in June he's considered moving up in weight at some point in his career. 

For now, Hardy will continue to establish his MMA credentials in UFC. The 30-year-old will return to the Octagon on Saturday to take on Juan Adams. 

Jon Jones defended his light heavyweight championship once again via a split decision against Thiago Santos in the main event of UFC 239 from Las Vegas on Saturday.

Jones was able to do just enough to keep Santos at bay. The challenger, who suffered an apparent leg injury early in the bout, brought the fight to the champion in a valiant effort.

Both fighters gave a measured effort in the first round. Santos attacked patiently with leg kicks and put together some moments including a punch that took out Jones' mouthpiece, but he mostly won the round based on his work on Jones' foundation:

The would slow up a bit in the second round as Santos appeared to tweak his knees after a botched kick. Jones took advantage with a little more aggression and even caught him backing up to knock him off balance:

The knee continued to be an issue as Santos struggled with movement and power. The champion also began to open up landing big elbows and putting Santos on the defensive. 

That trend continued in the fourth as Santos' output waned. Jones slowly ramped up the pressure and took advantage of an immobilized Marreta to take another round heading into the fifth. 

The injury set up a strange final round as Santos gritted it out with limited movement, yet Jones never opened up enough to take advantage. Marreta made it through the round and even landed a few flurries to make it a difficult round to judge:

The result was a difficult fight to score and a perplexing performance from Jones. 

Bones' latest title defense adds another accomplishment in what has been a busy stretch for the champion. After fighting just three times from January 2015 to July 2017, he's making up for lost time with three wins in a little over six months, including a win over rival Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Smith.

The champion's domination of the light heavyweight division has been thorough when he's active in the cage. He now holds wins over four of the five fighters who occupy the top five of the rankings, and it's difficult to even find an intriguing matchup for him at 205 pounds.

But don't expect that to force his hand in a move to heavyweight. He seems content to stay right where he is for now.

"I am thinking of heavyweight. But it's not in the forefront," the career 205-pounder said on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show in June. "I'm making weight just fine. People are assuming I'm a lot bigger than I am. I'm a full-sized light heavyweight. Grown-man strength. I feel like I'm getting stronger. Heavyweight will come. But things are going so well where I'm at, there's no reason to change anything."

After a close bout with Santos, there's a little more intrigue to Jones staying at light heavyweight for now. A rematch against a healthy Marreta sounds appealing and his success might open the path for other opponents to have a gameplan that could work against the longtime king. 

Santos may have opened up a once seemingly closed division with his performance even with Jones cementing his spot as the top light heavyweight.