It’s been ages since Jon ‘Bones’ Jones last fought inside the octagon. But it seems like he is ready to make his long-awaited return as he has teased his fans with a possible comeback date.
Jones (26-1-0, 1 NC) is regarded as one of the most dominant champions in the history of sports and the UFC, manhandling his opponents to ease his way to the top. He holds the longest streak for title defenses at light heavyweight.
Jones last made an appearance back in February 2020 against the former No.1 light heavyweight challenger, Dominick Reyes. It was a close encounter as Reyes pushed Jones to the limits, but the Rochester native held his nerves and came out on top after judges gave a unanimous decision in his favor.
Since then, Jones indicated that he will be moving up to heavyweight and vacated his light heavyweight title. Jones was expected to make his heavyweight debut at the start of this year but that didn’t mean to happen as Jones was abandoned by his long-time Jackson Wink MMA training center and had to look for a new crew for training purposes.
Over the last few months, Jones has given updates on his daily drills and training camp by releasing pictures of himself bulking up to reach that heavyweight limit. But there were no updates on when he will step into the octagon again.
Jones has come up with a possible answer to it. In a series of tweets on late Thursday evening, Jones laid the road map for his potential return teasing the fans with a return date.
“UFC 282,” Jones wrote beside a prayer emoji.
The expected opponent for Jones’ heavyweight debut has been none other than Stipe Miocic, the former two-time UFC champion.
The current UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou is also in the mix to face Jones for his return. Ngannou did mention December as the likely month for his return after settling his personal disputes with the UFC president, Dana White.
But whoever it may be, Jones wants to make an example out of it and set the standards right again as he has done so far in his UFC stint. He capped off his sayings with this tweet.
“My goal, my dream is to have my first heavyweight title fight look like my first light heavyweight title fight. Pure domination.”