UFC welterweight Gilbert Burns believes Jon Jones has made a mistake in jumping up to the heavyweight division, saying there is ‘no easy path’ at that level.
American fighter Jones announced last year that he was moving up from light-heavyweight and has no intention of returning, vacating his title last summer after planning to compete in the heavyweight division.
The 33-year-old, rated as one of the best fighters in the UFC, has not yet confirmed his first fight at heavyweight level but Brazilian welterweight Burns believes Jones had unfinished business at light-heavyweight and should have stayed to fight Israel Adesanya.
Burns added that should Jones, as expected, face the winner of an unscheduled heavyweight title fight between champion Stipe Miocic and challenger Francis Ngannou that he does not like Jones’ chances.
“Jon Jones at heavyweight? Me, I don’t like that so much,” Burns said on his YouTube channel.
“When you have a guy like Francis Ngannou in the heavyweight division, I don’t know. I don’t see an easy path for Jon Jones in the heavyweight division. Or he has to fight Stipe.”
“If Stipe beats Ngannou, Stipe is fighting Jon Jones. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think Ngannou is going to defeat Stipe and Ngannou will fight Jon Jones. And I don’t like that fight.”
“I don’t like the “what if”, but what if Jon Jones goes against Francis Ngannou and [Ngannou is] going to knock him out badly? How about that? What is Jon Jones going to do?”
Jon Jones opted to move up to the heavyweight division but his first fight is not yet confirmed.
“First, when you’re undefeated and you lose, it’s very tough. … If you’re champion, undefeated, undisputed and then you lose badly, I don’t know how that’s going to affect you [mentally]. I don’t know about Jon Jones’ future.”
Burns than emphasised that Jones jumped ship too fast from light-heavyweight with many promising contenders at that level.
“I think he still has a couple of guys to beat at 205 [pounds]. My opinion: he should fight Adesanya. Stay at 205, beat Jan Blachowicz, beat [Thiago] Santos again, another guy.”
Recently, Jones mocked claims he’d moved up to heavyweight to dodge a fight with Adesanya, tweeting he actually changed course due to a lack of ‘fear’ at light-heavyweight.