Coach Wink on a Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic fight: ‘I think the UFC would have to throw a lot of money at Jon’

Last week we got our headliner announcements in regards to UFC 239 as two titles will be defended when featherweight and bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes defends her latter crown against Holly Holm. And in the event’s featured attraction, light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones faces Brazil’s ‘Marreta,’ Thiago Santos.

However, on the day of that announcement, it looked like things were actually pointing in the direction of a big heavyweight clash between Jones and former champion, Stipe Miocic. Jones’ longtime coach, Mike Winkeljohn says otherwise though.

“I thought we were fighting Santos the whole time,” Winkeljohn said on Submission Radio. “I have no idea if the UFC was involved in it or that was just Jon pulling his leg. I think the UFC would have to throw a lot of money at him. They want to make money too, so I can’t blame Jon for wanting to make some money as well.

“It has nothing to do with [being an] interesting [fight]. Jon’s just all about the challenge. If the big fight money came in the heavyweight division, he probably would go for it. But Jon right now seems to be content with cleaning out the light heavyweight division, staying active and doing what most people don’t do, which is fight quite often and beat everybody up and continue on towards his legacy. I think he’s learned a lot from the past, he seems focused, he’s been in the gym that much more. And gosh, the Jon Jones that’s in the gym all the time, as you saw with the second [Alexander] Gustafson fight, where he starts figuring things out, he’s scary.”

For Jones, since reclaiming the title at the end of 2018 against Alexander Gustafsson, he’s already defended his title successfully when he earned a unanimous decision over Anthony Smith at UFC 235. If he defeats Santos at UFC 239, he will have a total of 10 title defenses to his name.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/4/2019