Jon Jones has sarcastically hit back at anyone who has suggested he left UFC's light heavyweight division last year out of 'fear' of future opponents.
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The former light heavyweight champion decided to give up the gold in October last year, in order to move up to the heavyweight division.
There had been calls for him to fight Dominick Reyes in a rematch, after many felt Reyes should have won their fight at UFC 247, or for Israel Adesanya to step up in weight to fight one of UFC's all time greats.
Whilst Dana White still wants to pair Jones and middleweight champ Adesanya, 'Bones' is clearly adamant that he'll move up to heavyweight and in a Twitter rant he explained why he's not running in 'fear' of anyone.
I left the LHW division because I was terrified of Dominic, even though Jan was guaranteed the next title shot.♂️ And then once the MW champ suddenly moved up, I knew I had made the right choice :joy: Glad I decided to go the easy route pic.twitter.com/3vXtuTvwcL
- BONY (@JonnyBones) January 2, 2021
I didn't leave the light heavyweight division to challenge myself, I ran out of fear :joy: :goat: :poop:
- BONY (@JonnyBones) January 2, 2021
Yep, just couldn't see myself beating Jan, his style is like nothing I've seen before and the thought of fighting a middleweight striker in 2021 was the final straw, figured Francis take down defense was worse, had to run https://t.co/88jAHojzlL
- BONY (@JonnyBones) January 2, 2021
- BONY (@JonnyBones) January 2, 2021
It's fair to say the 33-year-old was getting a bit sarcastic with some of his posts and he really isn't too worried about anyone he comes up against.
Earlier last year he and Francis Ngannou had started a war of words on social media and the pair clearly wanted to fight each other.
Talks broke down with the UFC over money and not long after Jones decided to walk away from the 205lbs division and dropped the belt.
Speaking to Bleacher Report he revealed he has no plans of returning to light heavyweight, saying, "The reason why I decided to vacate the light-heavyweight belt and not hang onto it is that I knew my move to heavyweight was going to take a really long time.
"I didn't want to be one of those athletes to slow down the division.
"I feel like I've held onto the light-heavyweight championship for so long-I've ruined so many people's dreams of being the light-heavyweight champion-and now it's time for someone else to have it."
Hopefully we see Jones back in the octagon sooner rather than later.
Featured Image Credit: PA
Topics: Jon Jones, Stipe Miocic, UFC News, MMA News, Combat Sports, American sports, UFC, Francis Ngannou, MMA, Israel Adesanya
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