Jon Jones willing to relinquish heavyweight championship, pitches ‘BMF’ title fight against Alex Pereira

Jon Jones might want to add another championship to his resume after UFC 309.

Just days away from returning to defend his UFC heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic in the main event from Madison Square Garden in New York, the reigning champion addressed his latest comments, stating quite emphatically that he has no interest in meeting with Tom Aspinall, but suggested a potential showdown with reigning light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira instead.

While facing backlash for that statement, Jones stands by his decision, but he also doesn’t want to hold up a division or stop Aspinall from claiming the title once he’s gone. In fact, Jones says that as much as he likes the idea of ​​defending the heavyweight title against Pereira, he would be willing to relinquish that belt in hopes of another championship potentially being won.

“It would be cool to fight for the heavyweight championship, but I also wanted to give up the heavyweight championship,” Jones shared SportsNet on Monday. “I walked away from the light heavyweight championship. I’d love to walk away from this one on top too, on (my) own terms, good head on your shoulders, making lots of money. I love the position I’m in right now.

“Fighting Pereira for the ‘BMF’ belt, that would be cool. We both have two belts in two weight classes, and the night we fought, we both wanted to fight for our third belt, which would be the ‘BMF.’ How cool would it be?”

Jones suggesting a “BMF” title fight throws a whole new wrinkle into this potential matchup, especially given his long history as arguably the greatest fighter of all time, while Pereira has quickly earned a reputation as one of the nastiest knockout artists to ever compete in the UFC.

There is a current “BMF” champion in Max Holloway, but that belt isn’t exactly weight class specific.

The first ever “BMF” title went to Jorge Masvidal after he defeated Nate Diaz at welterweight and then moved the belt to Justin Gaethje after a vicious knockout over Dustin Poirier at lightweight. Gaethje then lost the belt to Holloway at UFC 300, but who’s to say another “BMF” title couldn’t be introduced for Jones vs. Pereira?

As much as Jones likes that idea, he also takes issue with the way things have played out after essentially dismissing Aspinall as a possible opponent worthy of his attention.

Aspinall may have an interim title wrapped around his waist right now, but Jones doesn’t think that belt should have been introduced in the first place.

A torn pectoral muscle prevented him from fighting Miocic back in November 2023, and in his absence the UFC crowned Aspinall as the new interim champion after he knocked out Sergei Pavlovich. In Jones’ opinion, that fight ultimately created more problems than it solved.

“The interim championship shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” Jones said. “The only reason there was an interim championship match was because I got hurt and they had to keep the importance of that Madison Square Garden event. But Sergei (Pavlovich) and Aspinall weren’t going to having fought for an interim title in the first place.

“They should have just been a replacement match. A main event match. I think it was premature to make it an interim (title) match. Now you have a bunch of confused people.”

Jones believes he should have been given the opportunity to heal from his injury and just come back to defend the heavyweight championship without an interim title lingering in the shadows.

“When you have a dominant champion that has been around as long as I have, there was no reason to put an interim championship belt out there,” Jones said. “It’s the fallout from Madison Square Garden last year.”