“I love the position I’m in right now. Fighting Pereira for the ‘BMF’ belt would be cool,” said Jon Jones ahead of his clash with Stipe Miocic at UFC 309. Jones has expressed interest in facing the light heavyweight champion, but what about ‘Poatan’? Interestingly, the light heavyweight champ is also open to taking on the heavyweight champion. However, there’s a twist to these conversations.

Alex Pereira is all set to clash with the number-one light heavyweight contender, Magomed Ankalaev, at UFC 313. However, it seems the fighter is already looking beyond the Dagestani challenge, as he has set his sights on Jon Jones, signaling his desire to move into a new career phase. While conversing with renowned journalist Ariel Helwani, the Brazilian emphasized that he would like to fight three times this year and that a fight against Jon Jones remains a possibility.

When asked about a clash at the heavyweight division, Alex Pereira underscored that he would fight anybody if the UFC grants him the fight, “I’ll fight anybody at heavyweight. But I’m the champion, and Jon Jones is the champion. If Aspinall was the champion, I’d want to fight him.

In his conversation with Joe Rogan, Pereira revealed that he is a natural heavyweight, as he typically walks around at 230 lbs and would love to clash in the heavyweight division as well. The Sao Paolo native further doubled down on his words on ‘The Ariel Helwani Show’, “Well, I don’t know, because you know what I mean. I thought of only fighting at heavyweight. He can be a risk, and I can be a risk. If I am the champ, I want to fight the champ. So, let’s make the fight with Jones—that’s the fight I want for heavyweight.”

Listening to his answers, Ariel Helwani couldn’t resist but ask whether the heavyweight clash could happen this year, to which the current light-heavyweight champion stated, “Anything is possible. A lot of things could not happen, but it is possible. Before the Jon Jones fight, they actually talked about something like that, but it’s not sure.”

There is a dilemma in the heavyweight division as Jon Jones has outright refused to fight or made an obnoxious demand from UFC CEO Dana White for a clash against Tom Aspinall. The heavyweight champion has stated, “I’ll just move on with my life if the UFC doesn’t want the Alex Pereira fight.” Jon Jones is hellbent on not clashing against Aspinall, but why? Well, according to the former light-heavyweight champion, there might be an unease behind the decision.

Jan Blachowicz explains why Jon Jones is snubbing a fight against Tom Aspinall and chose Alex Pereira

As we move forward to 2025, the fate of the heavyweight division is in the doldrums, as the UFC CEO Dana White has to navigate some murky waters. The UFC head honcho aims to turn his attention to making the Jones vs. Aspinall fight a reality to chart a course for the future of the division. Amidst the chaos, former light-heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz has come forward to lay down his analogy on the fiasco.

“I think [Jon Jones] does this because Alex Pereira is now a big star in the UFC,” Blachowicz said in a conversation with MMA Fighting “Everybody knows him. He knows what he’s doing. But I believe he should fight against Aspinall, but I think he’s a little bit afraid of him. Because Aspinall is someone who can really stop him and beat him. I think he believes if he can fight against Pereira, he can take him down, control him, maybe something like this. With Aspinall, it will be not so easy.”

Why Jon Jones should be a bit afraid of Aspinall, you ask? Well, that’s because out of his 15 MMA victories, Aspinall has finished 14 of them in the very first round. This single fact is enough to show the ferocity of the British fighter. Regardless, Jon Jones might clash against the interim champ before challenging Alex Pereira, because Dana White is pushing the fight. What’s your take on the fiasco? State your thoughts in the comments below.