Former two-division UFC champ Daniel Cormier believes a heavyweight fight between Jon Jones and Curtis Blaydes makes “all the sense in the world.”
Jones, the most dominant light heavyweight fighter in MMA history, recently vacated the UFC light heavyweight title with plans to move up to the heavyweight division. While it’s still not clear who he’ll fight in his first fight in this new weight class, Cormier believes Blaydes should get the call.
Blaydes was slated to fight Derrick Lewis in the main event of UFC Vegas 15 last Saturday, but was forced out of the matchup at the eleventh hour when he tested positive for COVID-19. With that matchup on ice, Cormier feels it’s the perfect time to schedule Blaydes for a fight with Jones.
“Jones needs a heavyweight fight. I say move Blaydes to Jones. … It makes all the sense in the world,” Cormier said on ESPN’s DC & Helwani show (via MMA News). “(If) Jones beats Blaydes, nobody will ever say he doesn’t belong at heavyweight. (If) Blaydes beats Jones, now he has beaten the greatest of all time – in people’s minds – going up to heavyweight. He’ll get his title shot right away.”
Interestingly, just days prior to this suggestion from Cormier, Blaydes discussed a potential heavyweight fight with Jones, emphasizing that he’d require a serious pay boost to accept a fight with the light heavyweight legend.
“No, I’m not (fighting Jones),” Blaydes told TSN. “If I win this fight (with Lewis), I want the title shot. I’m not going to be cannon fodder to build up someone else. I’ve already built up myself and I feel like I’ve earned that. I feel like I don’t have to take that fight if I don’t need it. That’s a title fight. I’m not fighting Jon Jones to prove that I deserve a heavyweight title shot, that’s ridiculous.
“We’re talking about money. I’m not going to fight Jon Jones for 200k, that’s ridiculous. I think that a lot of people forget that we get paid what we get paid regardless of who the opponent is. So I don’t need to fight Jon Jones to make my 200k. I can fight a bum and make 200k. If I fight Jon Jones, I want that money.”
What do you think of this suggestion from Daniel Cormier? Does a Jon Jones vs. Curtis Blaydes fight make sense?