Jon Jones

By FCF Staff

Recently UFC President Dana White reported that Stipe Miocic is interested in fighting Jon Jones. But, it sounds like one of the latter’s coaches would be pretty surprised if tha fight occurs.

Jones has yet to fight since he defended the light heavyweight title against Dominick Reyes in February, 2020, and then vacated the title a little while after. Jones campaigned for a bout with Francis Ngannou before the now, reigning champ, KO’d Miocic this past March. But, the fight never materialized.

Now that Ngannou is expected to fight the new interim champ, Ciryl Gane later this year, there’s been renewed speculation about Miocic fighting Jones. But, in a recent interview with Submission Radio, Jones’  striking coach, Mike Winkeljohn, threw cold water on that idea (quotes via MMA Junkie).

“It doesn’t really excite me,” Winkeljohn said. “I would assume – it has nothing to do with what excites me or not – I would think the same thing, from the outside looking in, I would think that wouldn’t excite Jon. I think Jon wants the big one. He wants to get the big one. He wants the big challenge, and right now Stipe is not there. Stipe is awesome, don’t get me wrong, but Jon wants the biggest challenge out there. That’s how Jon Jones thinks.”

“Makes sense to go after the title,” Winkeljohn also said in the interview. “Because honestly, Jon is the best pound-for-pound of all time, so why would he have just a normal fight? Unless we felt we needed that to get used to our new body. I don’t think we’re going to need that. I think Jon is already getting used to his new size, so there’s not a necessity to take a step-up fight. Jon’s ready to go. He wants the challenge.”

Not long ago, Jones also reported that he does not intend to fight and begin his run at heavyweight until next year.