UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones was posed an interesting question Wednesday at UFC 235 media day: If he were to fight at heavyweight, would he choose Brock Lesnar or Daniel Cormier?
The 31-year-old Jones said he’d take the guy he hasn’t fought before.
“I’d take Brock Lesnar because he brings a whole different audience and people have already seen me make DC cry twice already,” Jones said at the media day, according to MMA Junkie. “I’ve got nothing against this guy. Let him have his heavyweight dominance.”
Of course, there is more history between Jones and Cormier, including a 2014 on-stage kerfuffle that led to Jones being fined $55,000 and Cormier $9,000. Jones beat Cormier in a unanimous decision in UFC 182 and then had a no contest against Cormier in UFC 214 in 2017.
The loss is the only blemish of Cormier’s career.
A fight with Cormier might be easier to schedule, though, as the 41-year-old Lesnar is currently with the WWE and has fought in mixed martial arts just once — a 2016 no contest against Mark Hunt in UFC 200 — since 2011. He hasn’t won a UFC match since beating Shane Carwin on July 3, 2010 in UFC 116.
The bigger question with Jones is whether he would ever leave light heavyweight behind and go to heavyweight, as he’s been dominant in the division. Jones said if he were to go to heavyweight, he could also see himself returning to light heavyweight because he’d want to fight at “235, no more.”
“Everyone is talking about me going to heavyweight but I don’t have any issues with my weight class,” Jones said. “You know, my wife’s my nutritionist. She knows what I like to eat. She knows how my body reacts to certain foods so I really don’t have any problem making light heavyweight. But everyone is trying to push me into this heavyweight, as if it has to happen, you know.
“I think UFC is really good at making things happen that the fans want and I think what they need to do is say, ‘Hey Bones, we’ve got some cha-ching for you.’ Conor McGregor‘s taught me a lesson, man. If you want to see it bad enough, they got the money.”
Jones said that he would like to fight four times this year if his body holds up. Jones told MMA Fighting that if he fought four times this year and won all four, he thinks “the argument would be just over” about which fighter is the greatest of all time.