Jon Jones set his long-awaited return to action for November 16 as Merab Dvalishvili dethroned Sean O’Malley to become the UFC bantamweight champion.
Heavyweight champion Jones has a reputation as the greatest fighter on the UFC roster.
He will return to fight Stipe Miocic at Madison Square Garden in New York.
It will be Jones’ first defence of the UFC heavyweight title he won in March of 2023 with a first-round submission of Ciryl Gane.
That was his first fight in three years and his first in the heavyweight division. Then Jones said: ‘This is the biggest opportunity of my life, to beat the heavyweight GOAT [greatest of all time]. I am going to give it everything I have got. I am not only going to beat Stipe Miocic, I am going to finish Stipe Miocic!’
Jones was due to fight Miocic last year but was ruled out due to a pectoral injury.
The fight was announced at The Sphere in Las Vegas, the venue that staged O’Malley vs Dvalishvili.
Dvalishvili engineered an upset to win the UFC bantamweight champions, controlling O’Malley for much of the bout to win a unanimous decision.
He took it on scores of 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47.
In the chief support bout Valentina Shevchenko became a flyweight champion once again, beating Alexa Grasso, taking every round for every judge.
This was their third fight after Grasso claimed the championship in their first and their second ended in a draw.
Marcus Bellamy