Dana White’s
recent revelation that Jon Jones
would get to face the winner of the Stipe
Miocic–Francis
Ngannou bout didn’t come as a surprise to Curtis
Blaydes.
Miocic and Ngannou will square off in the UFC 260 headliner on
March 27, and if all goes as planned Jones will get a chance to vie
for heavyweight gold against the winner sometime in the summer.
That leaves a contender like Blaydes, who will be gunning for his
fifth consecutive triumph in the
UFC Fight Night 185 main event agianst Derrick
Lewis, on the outside looking in.
“I expected it. It’s Jon Jones.
He’s a money fight,” Blaydes told ESPN. “If he
wants to fight for the belt, yeah, he gets to fight for the belt.
I’m not shocked. Do I think it’s the most fair thing? No, but
that’s not what this business is about. It’s not about fair and
who’s earned what.”
Jones, who is widely regarded as the greatest light heavyweight of
all-time, vacated his belt last year in anticipation of a move to
heavyweight. It’s not unusual for a champion from another division
to get a quick title shot when they change weight classes. Case in
point: reigning middleweight champ Israel
Adesanya is getting a 205-pound title shot against Jan
Blachowicz at UFC 259 without a light heavyweight win to his
credit.
“I think Glover
Teixeira at light heavyweight, he should’ve been next,” Blaydes
said. “But hey, Izzy wants to bump up, you let Izzy bump up. It
works like that for all weight classes. I wasn’t shocked at
all.”