Dana White Reacts To Idea Of Jon Jones Moving Up To Heavyweight After Dominick Reyes Fight

UFC president Dana White has dismissed the idea that Jon Jones will climb up to the heavyweight division after his upcoming clash with Dominick Reyes.

The 32-year-old UFC light heavyweight champ will return to the octagon at UFC 247 on 8th February.

Jones has previously teased the idea of a potential move up to 265 pounds, but White believes that 'Bones' is "comfortable at light heavyweight."

The UFC chief told ESPN: "I don't know about him going to heavyweight, I think he's comfortable at light heavyweight, and every time that you think there's not another challenger for Jon Jones, there's another challenger for Jon Jones.

"I don't know, we'll have to see how this thing plays out.

"He has to get through Dominick Reyes first before you even start thinking about heavyweight or anything else."

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UFC legend Jones hasn't fought inside the octagon since his split decision victory over Thiago Santos at UFC 239 last July.

Speaking ahead of the Anthony Smith fight in March last year, 'Bones' claimed that fans wanted him to climb to heavyweight so they could see him fail.

"I think people want me to go to heavyweight because, quite frankly, they want to see me lose," he told MMA Fighting, before adding: "or get close to it, or take some serious damage -- and at heavyweight, the risk goes up tremendously.

"These guys are a lot bigger than me. And they say all the time, when you get a talented little guy versus a talented big guy, the odds are in the big guy's favor, right? So I think that's the pressure.

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"I don't think it's fair, really, because I've always been a light heavyweight. Despite who the champion's been, I've never challenged anybody at heavyweight.

"And I feel like I'll move up to heavyweight on my own terms, when I feel like the UFC's playing ball with me contractually to entertain that.

"No-one's entertaining any idea of switching the contract for any super-fights, so we're just kinda stuck at this spot here, fighting at light heavyweight."

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Jones teased last month that he wanted to fight at heavyweight and was eyeing up a clash with UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic.

"I was trying to get a Stipe Miocic fight," he said at the UFC 247 pre-fight press conference.

"I thought that maybe it would happen, but instead we have Stipe-DC [Daniel Cormier] 3.

"But at the moment I was so ready to go to heavyweight and stick my hands in with some of those big fellas."

Topics: Jon Jones, UFC News, MMA News, Dominick Reyes, UFC, MMA, Dana White

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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