According to Dana White, Jon Jones is officially no longer the UFC lightweight heavyweight champion.
The UFC president spoke to reporters following Dana White’s Contender Series Season 4: Week 3 and was asked about Jones’ announcement on Monday that he was leaving the title.
“It’s official, yes,” White said. “While we were here, I actually went live on SportsCenter and announced it between one of the fights and announced it all.”
It was also reported by ESPN on Monday that a fight between Dominick Reyes and Jan Blachowicz will take place September 26 at UFC 253. Several people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans have confirmed the booking to MMA Fighting.
White would go on to confirm that the next big pay-per-view event will now feature two fights for the world title, alongside Israel Adesanya defending his middleweight championship against Paulo Costa in the main event.
“Yeah, it’s for the low title,” White said of the fight between Reyes and Blachowicz for the undisputed lightweight title.
A little later, the UFC officially announced that a new 205-pound champion will be crowned in the UFC 253 co-main event via its official website.
After relinquishing his title, Jones said he and the promotion had “a really positive conversation” and that negotiations for his next fight will be in the heavyweight division.
White would double down on the idea that Stipe Miocic – who defeated Daniel Cormier in the main event of Saturday night’s UFC 252 event to retain his heavyweight title – will make his next title defense against Francis Ngannou. There is currently no schedule for that fight to go down.
As for the ‘heavyweight future of Jones’, White was non-committal.
“I know Jon right now wants to take time to do things he wants to do,” White said. “If you follow him on Instagram, he’s done a lot of shooting, he likes working with these attack dogs, he takes on a lot of weights, and I think he enjoys living his life a little bit. I think if this very heavyweight thing plays out, we’ll see what works for him.
“I do not know exactly what the good outcome is, but we will see.”
