MMA Fighting - Jon Jones Vacates UFC Light Heavyweight Title Reaction

Episode Date: August 18, 2020

Moments after Jon Jones announced he was vacating the UFC light heavyweight championship, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alex K. Lee reacted to the news. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. My cat here for MMAfighting.com reacting to the big news of the day. John Jones widely considered the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, took to Twitter earlier today and announced that he is vacating the UFC light heavyweight title. To begin a series of three tweets, Johns wrote, quote, just got off the phone with the UFC. Today I can confirm that I'm vacating the light heavyweight championship.

It's officially up for grabs. It's been an amazing journey. Sincere thank you to all my competition, UFC, and most importantly, you fans. Followed up with, quote, the last I spoke with the UFC about my salary, there was no negotiating. If that ever changes, I'd love to come back and compete again as a heavyweight. Until then, I'll be enjoying the UFC as a fan and doing my best to take care of my family and community. In good faith, I'll be staying in the testing pool for probably the next half year or so. continue to lift weights and train all the different martial arts.

Around 90 minutes before Jones made this announcement, ESPN's Brett Akamoto reported that a fight between Dominic Reyes and Jan Blahovitz was being discussed for September 26th at UFC 253, which would likely be for the vacant title, although that has not been finalized just yet. When that fight was announced, it seemed like maybe the UFC would look at a possible heavyweight title fight between Steep A. Meachich and John Jones, but that doesn't seem to be the case at least for right now.

And it's no secret that Jones has had his troubles with Usada, troubles with the law. But since his recent DWI in March, Jones has been quite active in the community, has been on the front lines during riots and protests in Albuquerque in the fight against racial inequality. But what he has done in the Octagon throughout his illustrious career has been incredible. But he's also had his issues with the UFC. Jones and Francis and Ghanu were actively trying to get a fight put together between the two of them a few months back. That didn't happen. And Jones was very public about how the negotiations turned out back then, saying that they wouldn't give them a bump in pay to move up to heavyweight.

And Dana White said Jones wanted, quote, Deonti Wilder money, which John refuted. So it's been quite the rocky road over the last three or four months. Since his UFC 241 win over Daniel Cormier, which is overturned to a no contest after a positive drug test, Jones returned after around a 17 month or so layoff to recapture the 205-pound title with the third-round T-Qa-win over Alexander Gustafson at UFC 232. Then he went on to defend the title three different times with the unanimous decision win over Anthony Smith at UFC 235 and then followed that up with back-to-back very close decision wins over Tiago Santos and Dominic Reyes.

And as we are getting in the middle of this, John Jones takes to Twitter again and said, quote, just had a really positive conversation with the U.S. UFC, sounds like there will be negotiations for my next fight at heavyweight. All good news, the wakening process begins. So there's so much to unpack here. And I don't want to do this by myself anymore. So let's bring in my colleague, Alex Kaley. Alex, as you know, there are no slow news days in MMA ever.

And just when you think we have enough to talk about news breaks like this, less than 48 hours removed from UFC 252, John Jones is tweeting during the main event between Stepe Meitchich and Daniel Cormier. He's talking about possibly fighting Steepa. Now he vacates the light heavyweight title, says he's going to watch as a fan. Then the UFC and him have a positive conversation. He might go to heavyweight now. This is crazy. How do you react to all this as it is still going down?

Mike, there's more. Hi, guys. Hi, everyone. Mike, there's more. Did anyone see? There's more. There's two more tweets. There's more.

I will read them out now. That literally just happened within the last like 60 seconds as we're recording us. One of them, first light heavyweight to win six championships in a row. I'll pay $100,000 to whatever charity of their liking. I'll be waiting. So just challenging the next champion to approach his greatness. And then was going to challenge a light heavyweight to beat my world championship record. But we all know that's probably not happening in this lifetime.

So kind of throwing down the gaunt for the rest of the light heavyweight division as he does whatever it is that he plans to do next. as we said, it sounds like that the heavyweight thing is happening. I was, I, and I think a lot of the, you know, keener minds in the MMA media sphere, Mike, were not bamboozled. We were not looking at this as a retirement. I don't think any of us thought for a second that, oh, this is the end of John Jones. He's never fighting again. This reeks of a negotiation tactic from himself and his management team from the beginning.

Where exactly it was leading, we can't be sure. But like you said, now we have this update. Clearly, it is just precipitating a move to heavy. heavy weight. So for anyone looking for that eventual John Jones, Steepi Mietichich matchup, it looks like it could be happening sometime and possibly sometime soon. We're talking before the end of the year here based on how quickly the story is moving. It could be booked by Friday based on how quickly the story is moving. So a lot of smoke, a lot of mirrors, I think, and I hope a lot of people by now at this point can kind of learn how to read these tea leaves at this point.

Yeah, it's funny. We literally just finished wrapping the requirements. recording in Between the Links, which was loaded up with discussion points surrounding Saturday nights event and beyond. It is a doozy for sure. We mentioned John Jones's chances on getting a shot at the heavyweight title. Both panelists agree that it should be Steep A versus John Jones. And I mentioned this for two reasons. One, for those who will watch Between the Links tomorrow, here is your warning, okay?

We did not discuss this story on Between the Links because it happened right after we were done recording. Okay, so I don't want to see any comments saying, I can't believe you didn't talk about John Jones. He vacated the title. How could you do this? That's why. And the second, this was Jones basically saying for better or for worse, if you want me back, it's got to be in the heavyweight division. Now, AK, we talked about this at our matchmaking show on to the next one.

Cheap plug. You didn't like the idea of Jones fighting for the title. You thought it was a little crazy for even bringing this up and saying it was a 50-50 thing. You didn't think his chances of getting the shot over in Ghana were all that high. Does this make you look out a little bit deeper, Ak. Because your stance changed. I want to tend to refute all those three points. I didn't say I didn't like it.

I don't like it compared to Francis Nganoe getting a title of shot. I do think that Ngano deserves a title shot more. I'm sure everyone agrees with that. But also, of course, I understand the reasoning between why to see John Jones go up and immediately get a heavyweight title shot. It's perfectly understandable. And again, I saw that I don't like it. If anything, of course, if you ask me to pick, what fight do I want to see more?

Francis Ngano versus Stephen Miotich rematch or John Jones versus Stephen Miotich. I'm going to say John Jones versus Stevie Mietich. I'm human. I'm a fan like anybody else. I'm easy. I'm easy. Wave these, dangle, these fancy fights in front of me and I'm going to clap and, you know, okay, I get it.

You got me, okay? It's not the right thing to do, but it does seem like the direction that is incredibly possible. I don't even think we mentioned yet. The timing of this is peculiar, given the report that came out earlier from ESPN, about the Jan Blahovic Dominic Reyes matchup, which as it was reported, was saying they don't know what the stakes are going to be,

whether it's a number one contenders bout, and that the UFC is actively speaking to John Jones. So clearly, that was very true. A conversation did happen, obviously not just about what to do with the light heavyweight title, but what Jones's plans are moving up to heavyweight. So at the timeline matches up just right. So a lot of people were saying, man,

if this does this mean John Jones isn't going back, then is he getting that title shot? You have to think that even, even though Dana White on Saturday said no, Saturday evening after USC to resume, no, John Jones will not skip the line. We are now 48 hours later and you have to be thinking, it's possible

John Jones skips the line. He didn't just skip the line. I think he closed line Francis Aganu out of the line. Like, not physically, but just like, you know, in a weird way. Like, I think he's just tweets just kind of, he virtually pushed Francis Nagano out of the way. And by the way, John Jones has added to these

tweets, saying, quote, seriously, I challenge you guys to go out there and be great to It's going to be awesome watching that with that cheeseburger in my hand. So John continues to talk about this. And we've seen things like this happen in our sport many times before with some of its biggest stars. Heck, we just saw it over the summer with Jorge Mazadol ahead of UFC 251. And the gamble paid off for him and his bank account, by all indications.

He didn't win the fight or the title against Kamar Usman, but he put himself in a spot where, one, he's not far away from getting back to a title shot. And two, he proved he was a massive draw for the company. So only big fights are coming Jorge Mazadol's way. How similar, in your opinion, are these two cases? And could it pay off for Jones as well as it did for Mazadol? Yeah, it definitely could. Look, we always say the UFC has the advantage in these public negotiations.

That's always the way it's going to be. And I think even as we saw, I didn't read all the reactions, but I know there was some fan reaction to Jones' original tweet, kind of questioning like, oh man, like, how could you just walk away from all these opportunities? You have so much fighting left in you. You know, you should have found a way to work things out with the UFC. But I think that with, like you said, with him and Mazvedal, this is the only card they can play is the I'm not going to fight anymore card.

And again, it works out to varying degrees. We still don't know how well Mazvedal was compensated for that fight. But according to him and his team, they are happy with what they got. So there has to be some truth to, you know, those negotiations being successful. Again, did the UFC also kind of get what they wanted to give? Yeah, it's possible. And same in this situation. John Jones and his management might get something, might get, you know, not quite what they were looking for, but more than, you know, more than they're used to.

But for the UFC, as long as I think it stays below, you know, the pay stays below a certain threshold, then they're happy to, they're happy to concede ground. You know, they're happy to say, oh, yeah, yeah, we gave him what he wanted. But people don't know, fans got to realize. Sometimes what the fighter and their management wants is also what the UFC wanted all along. So it's a long game. Again, we don't always get all the exact numbers, so it's hard to say in the end who wins these things. But, yeah, I agree with what you're saying that Jones and Mazvedal kind of, you know, it happened around the same time and the public disputes and it kind of could end up being resolved the same way.

And yeah, I mean, I just don't see Jones going up to heavyweight for anything less than a title shot, which looks like, again, we could get now by the end of the year. True or false. We have seen John Jones's final fight at 205 pounds. He will never fight a light heavyweight again. Oh, that's a good question. That is a good question. Yeah.

You know what? I think this is it. I think he's going to stay at heavyweight. I questioned for the longest time how serious he was about moving up to heavyweight. Again, he's teased it so many times. He said, I'm very interested. Then sometimes he said, I'm not interested at all. I don't know.

There's too powerful up there. The guy's too big. And then the next he'll say, oh, well, now that I'm thinking about it again, you know, he likes to tweet during fights, you know, to get that max interest. So he's very smart about it, very cheeky. But now that it seems like it's actually going to happen, excuse me, I think he stays there just because I think the more interesting fights are there. Like I said, I think people still want to see him fighting Ghanu. There's some heat there.

And who knows who else. I think he's convinced that his talent level is enough to make up for any sort of size disadvantages he might have. Though, again, he's a big guy. It's not act like he's a small guy going up to heavyweight. And I just think he's, he's, you know, he's done everything he can do at 205. The Dominic-Gareas matchup is somewhat intriguing, but to him, to us, to him, I'm not sure. So do I think this is the last time? If he actually finally makes that move to heavyweight, yeah, I think he's done.

I will agree with you. However, there is one name that I think that can pull him back in, only because of like where he's at in his career right now and how people view him currently. If Yeri Pohashka can just start rolling through people, I mean just doing exactly what he did, to Volka and Ozedimir to like the next five guys. Like if he wins the title, defends like two or three times in that same kind of fashion, I think that kind of a fight could get John back. But I think that's it.

I don't think there's any other option. I think it's got to be like, and he has to crush people to get the John Jones fight. Like it's if he wins like eight in a row and it's like five decisions, which is unlikely for a guy like that, I don't see it happening. But if he just goes through and just starts mowing people down in route to a championship and defending the title multiple times,

I think we might see John make the move one, maybe two more times. Who knows? True or false, John Jones fights again in 2020. Yeah, yeah. I'm convinced. I'm convinced if this mutual thing happens, it's going to happen fast. Now that, again, I'm probably taking Jones too much for his word here. Again, keep in mind, we are working off of tweets here, right?

This could be negotiation things, right? We don't know. He said he's talked to the OSC. And like I said, I believe they've had a conversation. How in depth these conversations, we don't know. We're only hearing one side of the story. But again, the speed at which this is moving, the speed at which we're reacting to it, the fans are reacting to it.

Everyone's kind of reacting. I'm sure we'll hear from Stepe soon. He's relaxing right now, spending time with this family, like I'm sure he said he wanted to do. I'm sure he's the last thing on his mind right now is wanting to respond to a tweet from a rival. So maybe later this week we'll hear about something from that. Or I'll speak to an outlet. We don't know.

Expect to us, hopefully. But I think it will happen now by the end of the year. If it does, it'll certainly be aimed for the end of the year. I could see it being delayed for whatever reason, but I can see an initial booking and reports aiming for December or something like that. Yeah, I think you're probably right here. And if you're Francis and Gano, what are you thinking right now? I just want to hit something really hard.

If I'm Francis and Gano, thank goodness he seems like a gentle giant, you know, from what we know of him because I would just be furious. And I'm, again, if I'm him or his manager, I'm preparing a fiery tweet. You know, I've got to try and get the narrative at least. I got to keep myself in the narrative, you know, so that, again, should something happen to either the fighters, God forbid, that they can't compete, but one of them still wants to pay on the card and doesn't want to wait for that super fight. And gone, it was just right there to step in.

But if I'm him, I'm also thinking, I'm not taking any more fights. I'll look at this as an opportunity where I'm going to wait. I'm going to make my comments and speak to the media on the side. And I get the winner of Jones, Mietichich, no matter what. Again, that's not his call to make, but that is the stance I take publicly and try to get people to kind of rally behind that notion. because again, either way, he wants either of those guys. And so he can't lose if he managed to put himself in that position.

Is there any chance that Jones versus Nganoe happens before Jones versus Miyocic? I sincerely doubt it. If I'm Jones, I have to take that title or bust thing. Because if you're Jones, you're confident that you can win the title. You know what I mean? He's definitely not going up thinking like, oh, I want to be in the mix at heavyweight. No, no, no. He thinks he can win it.

And I think he would love to beat Mietich and then make Inganu his first title defense. I think if you're constructing this in your mind, Jones, that's the perfect layout. And then either, again, maybe he retires after that. Maybe that's it. One win, one successful defense, and then I'm done, you know? So it depends who else emerges, merges during that time. You mentioned the Burhasa thing.

I will say, I thought you were going a different direction. Once again, you're always, you're always, you're always fooling me, Mike. Because I thought you were going to say, Izzy Adisanya, moving up to 205. Chesh. And by the way, I'm sorry, keep jumping between pronunciations, but I'm trying to always get the right one. But Addisania has kind of flippantly said, oh, obviously. anyway to chase John Jones. I don't picture that happening.

I think they would meet it 205 if that fight would ever happen. That is another option as well. But, you know, Izzy's got a lot of work to do at 185. He says he doesn't want to be a guy that just wins a couple of fights and goes up. Like, he wants to run through his entire division. He's still got some work to do there. I'm actually more convinced we see Jones versus Jones being at heavyweight for the foreseeable future than I see him coming back for Izzy. But if Izzy starts running and they both want that fight, sure, I could definitely see that.

happen. There's obviously a lot of moving pieces here. It would seem we're going to have a new or at worst interim light heavyweight champion on September 26 between Reyes and Blahovic. Nothing is official on that yet, but it seems that's the direction we're heading. Stepe versus Inganu seems to be no longer the frontrunner, at least from our minds. But maybe, you know, maybe we look back upon August 17, 2020 as the day where a fight between Stepe Mietchich and John Jones for the UFC heavyweight title, actually. became a real thing. What a day indeed. Any final thoughts on this AK before we put a bow on this John Jones to heavyweight stuff, at least for the time being until tomorrow when something else

happens? Remember when Dale Cormier's career was over and we were fetting his, what a great career he had? Wasn't that not just like within the last day? Dan Cormer just released a statement earlier today, which seemingly confirmed his retirement. Again, he still hasn't said the R word. So what have, You know, we just said the news cycle is so crazy. The number one story of the last 48 hours, well, there's two stories. One should have been again. Thank you, John Cormier for all your work and, you know, whatever's next for you. Thank you very much.

And Sean O'Malley, oh, my gosh, what a wild fight he had with Cheater Barra. And hopefully he's okay and how has the injuring things out? Those are the two top stories. And all of a sudden, nope. Now here comes John Jones kicking the door down. So how we'll remember it in history, Mike. We'll probably just remember it as a Monday. You know, you know what it was?

It was a Monday in MMA. That's how we're going to remember it. You know, love them, hate them, however you feel about John Jones. Well done today, sir. Well done. Whatever your methods were, you get everybody talking, and that's what it's all about here. But there you have it. Another big news day in this wonderful world of mixed martial arts.

That is Alex Kaley. I am Mike Hack reacting to the big news of the day. John Jones vacates the UFC Light Heavyweight title earlier today. Stick with us over at MAAfighting.com for the latest on this always. developing story.