Jon Jones Willing to Vacate Heavyweight Title After UFC 309 to Fight Alex Pereira

Jon Jones clarifies that the heavyweight title would not necessarily have to be at stake if he were to fight Alex Pereira and he has another belt in mind.

Full interview with the 🐐 coming soon... pic.twitter.com/R43YlfB9Ze

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) November 11, 2024

Jon Jones remains more interested in a future fight against Alex Pereira than a heavyweight title unification bout with Tom Aspinall.

Jones was originally supposed to defend his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 in November 2023 before he was forced out with an injury. Tom Aspinall went on to knockout Sergei Pavlovich in a short-notice interim title fight on the same card.

Despite Aspinall having defended his title since then, Jones has insisted on defending his strap against Miocic at UFC 309 on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York. And “Bones” seemingly won’t grant Aspinall a title unifier even after UFC 309. While Jones has hinted at retirement following UFC 309, he wants to fight light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira instead of Aspinall if he continues.

UFC 309: Jones vs Miocic. Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order Now!

According to Jones, the UFC 295 clash between Aspinall and Pavlovich shouldn’t have been for an interim title in the first place. To avoid the confusion, Jones is even willing to vacate his heavyweight title if he successfully defends it at UFC 309 and fight “Poatan” for the BMF title instead.

“It would be cool to fight over the heavyweight championship, but I’d also willingly give up the heavyweight championship,” Jones told Aaron Bronsteter. “I walked away from the light heavyweight championship and I would love to walk away from this one as well, on top… I love the position that I’m in right now. Fighting Pereira for the [BMF] belt, that would be cool. We both have two belts in two weight classes and the night we’d fight, we’d be fighting for our third belt, which would be the [BMF]. How cool would that be?”

Jones made won the heavyweight title in his divisional debut last year with a first-round submission win over Ciryl Gane in his return to the Octagon after a three-year hiatus. Meanwhile, Miocic hasn’t fought since a brutal knockout loss against Francis Ngannou in 2021. Aspinall has lost just once in UFC competition — due to a knee injury suffered against Curtis Blaydes — and he avenged that defeat at UFC 304 this past July. Only one of “Honey Badger’s” opponents have made it past the first round in the UFC. Pereira, a former middleweight champion, has three 205-pound title defenses to his credit.