If Jan Blachowicz has anything to say about it, he and Jon Jones will inevitably cross paths, regardless of the weight class.
At UFC 253, Jan Blachowicz became the new UFC light heavyweight champion when he claimed the vacant title after defeating Dominick Reyes via TKO. This achievement made him the first man not named Jon Jones or Daniel Cormier to be crowned light heavyweight champion since 2011. But in reality, there has been one name and one name alone that has been synonymous with the decision for the past decade: Jon Jones.
Even when Jones was not champion, there was always chatter about if/when he would return and how that would change the dynamic of the 205 title picture. Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same, because even though Jan Blachowicz has taken the reins of the division and Jon Jones announced a move up to heavyweight, the new light heavyweight champion still has Jon Jones’s name in his mouth and his plans.
“I would like to stay in 205 a little bit longer,” Blachowicz said in an interview with Submission Radio (transcript by Denis Shkuratov). “But it’s also hard because nobody knows what Jon Jones is doing right now. Even the UFC says that they don’t talk with him about his next fight. So, nobody knows what he’s doing.
“But, I believe that I will catch him later in heavyweight. I think two more years at 205 and then I will go to heavyweight.”
Jan Blachowicz has currently expressed a willingness to fight whomever the UFC puts in front of him, namely Israel Adesanya or Glover Teixeira, both fights that would happen exclusively for the light heavyweight championship that Blachowicz is currently in possession of. But in the case of Jon Jones, Jan Blachowicz is willing to fight Jones at light heavyweight, heavyweight, or even in an unsanctioned sparring session, just so long as they have the opportunity to compete against one another.
“First of all, I have to win against Glover or Israel, and after this fight we can talk about Jon Jones,” Blachowicz said. “I don’t care. I believe I catch him in future somewhere, at 205 or in heavyweight.
“Or maybe I’ll go to Albuquerque and go to his gym and we do sparring on the mat. But I believe that I have to fight against him somewhere, just for myself.”
How do you see a fight between Jon Jones and Jan Blachowicz playing out if it happens?
