Brandon Gibson, who serves as Jones’ striking coach, would like to see the former light heavyweight champion move up a weight class in the future.
“I think the day will come,” Gibson said on The MMA Hour. “I think Jon’s focus right now is just to continue his light heavyweight reign and solidify his legacy as a light heavyweight. Maybe the day will come where it’s at heavyweight, but I don’t think it’s right around the corner. It’s not something we’re talking about, but if the right opportunity came, I think it would be easy for Jon. I don’t think he’d put on a massive amount of weight or anything like that. I think he could go in there at kind of a more cruiserweight, like a 225, 235, and have a tremendous amount of success against these guys. I mean, I saw it all of the [rounds we’ve done] sparring against well known heavyweights out of the JacksonWink gym, so I
Jones has been a professional MMA fighter for over a decade and has yet to compete at heavyweight.
Whether he stays at light heavyweight or moves to heavyweight one day, a goal Jones would love to accomplish according to Gibson is to become to G.O.A.T in MMA.
“It is [on his mind] and I think it’s something he really wants to solidify,” Gibson said, “so I think part of it’s just going to come with time and trust and making statements. The second DC fight, I feel like we were right on the path, and then we got derailed a little bit. So Jon’s going to come out and make another statement, and I think we’re just going to have to take it one fight at a time. But I think if Jon is Jon, and he dominates the way he can dominate, at the end of the day there won’t be room for a debate. We still have a lot of time left in this thing.”
UFC 232 takes place on Saturday, December 29 from The Forum in Inglewood, California with Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
