As we all know, UFC 285 is just around the corner and I have a burning question on my mind. How heavy will Jon Jones be?
Jon Jones recently stated in an interview regarding his weight for UFC 285: “I want Cyril (Gane) to see me for the first time and it be a nice surprise.” But how heavy will he be on fight night?
At light heavyweight, would Jones weigh in at championship weight (205 pounds); then, on fight night, he’d be around 220 pounds. So we can assume his walk-around weight was 220 pounds.
Although Jones isn’t fighting Francis Ngannou, he was the guy Jones was preparing for and he knew he’d have to be somewhere near that 265-pound limit if he was to compete with Ngannou’s sheer strength.
Cyril Gane weighed in at UFC 270 at 247 pounds, he was also 247 pounds exactly for his Tai Tuivasa fight. Expect Gane to be in or around this number come fight week.
Looking at other fighters that made the move from light heavyweight to heavyweight in the UFC, I looked to three examples to make an educated guess as to how heavy Jon will come in.
Daniel Cormier made his heavyweight debut at 246 pounds, 6 months after weighing in at light heavyweight. Alexander Gustafsson made his long-awaited heavyweight debut at 240 pounds after 13 months in the wilderness. Ovince Saint Preux came in at 240.5 pounds just 8 months after competing at light heavyweight.
So all these fighters weighed in around 240 pounds on their heavyweight debuts. However, by the time UFC 285 comes around, Jones will have been out of the octagon for over three years.
Although ring rust is a thing, Jones has been putting on that weight to compete with the best at heavyweight and I think the layoff will benefit Jon. 3 years is far longer than 6 to 13 months and I genuinely believe that Jon Jones could weigh in heavier than Cyril Gane at UFC 285.
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