On Monday afternoon, Jon Jones announced that he had spoken with UFC officials and was vacating the UFC light heavyweight title.
Just got off the phone with @Ufc, today I 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.
The last I spoke with @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 Ufc has a fan and doing my best to take care of my family and community
In good faith I will be staying in the testing pool for probably the next half year or so. I’ll continue to lift weights and train all the different martial arts
Later in the evening on Monday, Jones posted a follow-up stating he spoke with the UFC and sounded optimistic about a future run in the heavyweight division:
Just had a really positive conversation with @Ufc. Sounds like there will be negotiations for my next fight at heavy weight. All good news, the weight gaining process begins.
The news of Jones vacating the titles comes hours after a report from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that the UFC was attempting to finalize a fight between contenders Dominick Reyes and Jan Blachowicz for September 26th. In ESPN’s report, it stated the fight had not been finalized and that the stakes had not been defined yet, suggesting this could become a fight for the vacant title although the UFC has not announced that yet.
His first championship win occurred in March 2011 defeating Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and defended it eight times over the next four years.
Jones, 33, was stripped of the UFC light heavyweight title in the spring of 2015 following his legal issues after a hit-and-run incident he was involved with. He fought Daniel Cormier for the title in August 2017, winning the fight with a third-round TKO but the title was returned to Cormier after Jones tested positive for the banned substance Turinabol.
Jones officially regained the light heavyweight title in December 2018 when he defeated Alexander Gustafsson for the vacant championship at UFC 232.
During this title run, he defended the title three times with victories against Anthony Smith, Thiago Santos, and Dominick Reyes.
Jones made it clear in his tweets on Monday that he will remain in the USADA testing pool adding that if the UFC is willing to negotiate, he would like to return as a heavyweight which would open the door for a multitude of big fights for Jones.
