Jon Jones (photo via Facebook)

UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones will be fighting Dominick Reyes next. The 29-year-old Reyes showed his contender status via a one-round beat-down of former middleweight champ Chris Weidman. After that fight Reyes reiterated his desire to fight the 32-year-old Jones. He will get his wish, as Jones announced on Twitter that his camp has chosen Reyes for their next fight. More recently, it was reported the match-up is targeted for a February 8th, UFC card in Houston.

A surprising development

Jones’ announcement was unexpected. That’s mainly because Jones didn’t seem interested in fighting contenders at light-heavyweight (including Corey Anderson, who KOd Johnny Walker at UFC 244). Instead, Essentially Sports reported that Jones was looking at another division for his next fight: against either Stipe Miocic or Daniel Cormier. The two heavyweights, who hold wins over each other, will be fighting a third time in the near future. The finer details are yet to be announced, but Jones’ recent statements just made that trilogy fight more compelling. Jones, who has long teased about a possible move up to heavyweight, said: “Let these light heavies figure out who’s going to present the best challenge.”

The biggest fight possible

If Jones beats Reyes then clearly Miocic or Cormier would represent the biggest fight possible, both for Jones and the UFC. Miocic and Cormier are stars. Jones, meanwhile, is one of the UFC’s megastars, and having him headline the promotion’s marquee division will be a massive financial coup. A Forbes article on the UFC’s recent pay-per-view numbers points out how Jones has been one of the company’s strongest PPV performers. Fights headlined by Jones have consistently drawn north of 700,000 buys, illustrating his status as one of MMA’s biggest and most bankable stars. That means a championship fight against either Cormier or Miocic is likely to generate over a million PPV buys.

A mega fight, likely in Vegas

Chances are Dana White won’t pass up on Jones fighting in the heavyweight division, whether it’s against Miocic or Cormier. Either way it will be a mega fight, and it will likely be held at Las Vegas, UFC’s official home. A post by Coral on ‘Why Las Vegas is the Home of Combat Sports’, notes how Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones are huge draws whenever they fight in Sin City. Outside of Conor McGregor-Khabib Nurmagomedov II and Conor McGregor-Nate Diaz III, there are no bigger potential fights for the UFC than Jon Jones-Daniel Cormier III or Jon Jones-Stipe Miocic — for they heavyweight belt and the unofficial title of baddest man alive no less.

That mega fight will have to wait

Jones vs. either Cormier or Miocic is no doubt a fight fans would love to see. But it’ll have to wait. At the moment it will be Jones vs. Reyes for the light heavyweight title, with White looking at a February 2020 fight date. Should Jones prevail the likelihood is that he’ll get his mega heavyweight fight next. That’s unless Reyes pulls off an upset.