At UFC 252, we watched Stipe Miocic best Daniel Cormier in one of the sport’s greatest trilogies. We also saw Jairzinho Rozenstruik prove he’s a true contender by finishing a former champ in Junior dos Santos.
As a matter of fact, the last couple weeks have cleared a couple things up in the heavyweight division.
Derrick Lewis proved he’s very serious about doing everything it takes to get another crack at the title and Alexander Gustafsson, who would have been an interesting contender, got submitted in his heavyweight debut.
But, we still have some pressing questions.
Like, where does Jon Jones fit into the mix?
After Stipe won Saturday night, Jones posted this on Twitter:
He also posted his early thoughts on the fight:
Jones seems confident that he’ll get the next shot at dethroning Stipe, but UFC President Dana White doesn’t seem so sure.
“Francis is definitely next. I mean you can’t jump over Francis,” he said. Francis has been out there destroying everybody and if you look at how long ago it was that he got that title shot… he’s worked his way back,” White stated. “It belongs to Francis Ngannou.”
Ngannou has earned a second chance at Stipe and it looks like he will get it. December’s PPV is a real possibility.
Jones will eventually debut at heavyweight and it will likely be for the belt, but it will not be for “champ-champ” status if he gets stripped of his light-heavyweight belt.
In the other heavyweight showcase of the evening, Jairzinho Rozenstruik handed Junior dos Santos his third straight loss. Rozenstruik knew he had a lot to prove after getting steamrolled by Ngannou back in May.
What he did in finishing JDS was validate that he can throw-down with the top guys at heavyweight. He also placed himself one, maybe two wins away from his first opportunity at competing for a UFC championship.
Derrick Lewis is coming off of his TKO over Oleinik and is in need of an opponent. Otherwise a marquee match-up with Curtis Blaydes will likely be in order for ‘Bigi Boy’.
The UFC heavyweight division is a lot of fun at the top right now with Ngannou, Blaydes, Lewis, Rozenstruik, and of course Mr. Jones all gunning for Stipe.
Oh almost forgot to mention that Dana isn’t sold on DC’s retirement… Cormier seems sure he’s done, but we shall see.
