Jon Jones is a two-division UFC champion, competing in the UFC since making his debut against André Gusmão at UFC 87 on August 9, 2008. But what weight class does the American champion fight in?
Bones became the youngest UFC champion in history when he captured the UFC light heavyweight title by defeating the legendary Shogun Rua.
After a long rule as the UFC’s 205-pound king, Jones moved up in weight in his last bout and fought Cyril Gane for the UFC heavyweight championship. He defeated Gane to become the 8th fighter to win two different weight classes in the UFC.
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Jones began his MMA career in a catchweight bout against Brad Bernard at the Full Force Productions’ Untamed 20 event in April 2008. The bout was fought at a limit of 210 pounds and Jones ended up winning via first-round knockout.
His next 27 bouts were fought at the light heavyweight division which has an upper weight limit of 205 pounds. Jon tipped the scales at the 205-pound limit when he won the title against Rua at UFC 128 in 2011. Bones has never missed weight in any of his bouts, which says a lot about his discipline. He even weighed in at 204.5 pounds during his rematch with Daniel Cormier.
During his heavyweight debut against Gane last year, Jones weighed a whopping 248 pounds, his heaviest weight ever in MMA competition. Although Jon did not have the usual chiselled body against Gane, he showed that he could carry the extra 43 pounds and not look sluggish in the fight.
While he was a light heavyweight, Jones often said that his walking weight was around 240 pounds before fights. When it was time to train, he would easily drop to 205lbs.
Meanwhile, Jon didn’t just eat and ballooned to become a heavyweight in a heartbeat. He needed three years to add weight before he finally made his heavyweight debut. The wait was long, but it was certainly worth it.
Jones’ first title defence is expected to be against former two-time heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. In Miocic, he will be dealing with an opponent who tipped the scales at 232 pounds when he lost the heavyweight belt to Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 in 2021.
Ngannou is also a possible Jones opponent as his name has floated in the rumor mill many times before. The Predator was a muscular 272.6 pounds when he fought Anthony Joshua in a boxing match in Riyadh last month. But with the UFC heavyweight division having an upper limit of 266 pounds, Ngannou will have to go down in weight if he wants to fight Jon Jones for his old belt.
Right now, everything about Jon Jones is purely speculation. He was recently seen in Australia, promoting one of his sponsors. Last month, he was also in Riyadh to watch Ngannou fight Joshua. It looked as if Jones was far from his fighting form as he was easily over 250 pounds during both appearances. However, as stated earlier, Jon has always come ready to fight.