Few people in the world may have been more satisfied watching UFC 321’s anticlimactic main event than Jon Jones.
Saturday’s pay-per-view was supposed to kickstart the UFC heavyweight division into a new era following the bizarre and protracted reign of Jones, who essentially held the belt hostage from mid-2023 until this past June with his demands to fight Stipe Miocic and unwillingness to unify against Tom Aspinall. Jones’ time with the belt finally came to an end this summer, when UFC CEO Dana White announced the future Hall of Famer’s decision to retire rather than acquiesce to the calls for an Aspinall fight.
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With Jones out of the picture, Aspinall was immediately promoted to undisputed champion and booked into the first proper defense of his belt for this Saturday at UFC 321 against Ciryl Gane — the same man Jones submitted in just two minutes in order to win the heavyweight title back in March 2023.
But the division’s long-awaited next chapter hit another snag late in the first round of Aspinall vs. Gane, as a Gane double eye-poke rendered Aspinall unable to continue, ending things in a disappointing no-contest. Gane had done well in the striking exchanges until the fight-ending foul and likely would’ve won the first round.
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Unsurprisingly, considering how contentious their rivalry became prior to Jones’ retirement, it didn’t take Jones long to throw some thinly-veiled shade in the champ’s direction. Shortly after UFC 321 concluded, Jones made a slight tweak to his social media avatars — adding an eyepatch to his trademark belt-wearing duck. (Jones switched to the duck avatar earlier this year amid mass accusations that he was “ducking” the Aspinall fight.)
Jones promptly added insult to injury by directly responding instead to UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, who proclaimed a desire to move up to heavyweight for his next fight earlier this month following his revenge win over Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320.
Jones accepted Pereira’s challenge and called for a superfight at the UFC’s 2026 White House card.
Alex, I’d be down to bring the highest skill level to the White House. I appreciate the respect you showed, let’s dance.
Pereira echoed his callout of Jones again Saturday in the immediate aftermath of UFC 321’s main event, promising to “make the heavyweight division great again” while posting a clip of him smirking as Aspinall vs. Gane was officially ruled a no-contest.
If it happens, considering the star power involved, Pereira vs. Jones would likely be one of MMA’s biggest fights of 2026.
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White expressed an openness to Pereira’s ambitions earlier this month:
“I was at work and I had a bunch of meetings [before UFC 320], and I went over at the [UFC Performance Institute] and he was over at the P.I.,” White said of Pereira. “I was like, ‘You’re the last guy I expected here today. What are you doing here?’ And they were telling me, ‘We want to fight at heavyweight.’ I said, ‘Uh, how about we win tonight, and then we can talk about heavyweight.’
“I like the guy so much, we’ll see. We’ll have to talk about it. I just don’t see why [he moves up in weight] unless he wants to retire. Why throw him at heavyweight? [It doesn’t] make any sense other than he just wants to do it so bad, I’ll just say yes.”
