Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight champion Jon Jones always wanted to test himself against heavyweight fighters after failing to find his equal at 205 pounds.
Now’s his chance.
“Bones” caught the eye of former UFC heavyweight titleholder Frank Mir with a submission win over fellow mixed martial arts (MMA) elder statesman Dan Henderson earlier this month at Submission Underground 2 (watch it), and despite their bromance, Mir wouldn’t turn down a “fun” grappling match.
From Flo Combat:
"I was under the assumption that if you are serving a suspension then you can't compete in anything. Jon has a suspension from both an athletic commission and from the UFC and was able to go compete. I guess not, though. So I guess I'll be competing this year in grappling competitions to one, just help quench my thirst for competition and [secondly] something it's just something I can make myself sharp at and get back into it so I'm not just jumping back into fighting after a year off. Jon and I are friends and stuff so to compete against him would be fun.”
I’ve never seen a submission from Mir that looked like it was “fun.”
Along with their love of submission grappling, Mir and Jones have something else in common, too. Both fighters are serving suspensions from United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after pre-fight drug tests returned positive for banned substances.
Mir will be eligible to return in early 2018, roughly one year after Jones.