Jan Blachowicz proposes four-man light heavyweight title tournament

UFC light heavyweight contender Jan Blachowicz has proposed a four-man tournament to determine the pecking order for Jon Jones’ 205lbs title.

Blachowicz is proposing he gets the next title shot against Jones while suggesting top contenders Dominick Reyes and Thiago Santos fight each other to determine who will fight the winner of Jones vs. Blachowicz for the next title shot after that.

Here’s what Blachowicz told MMAFighting.com.

“I can be the matchmaker right now if you want. I’ll fight Jon Jones for the title belt. Dominick Reyes can fight against Thiago Santos and who wins this fight can fight against me next for the title shot,” Blachowicz said.

Blachowicz is not the first person to suggest this idea, but it’s the first time one of the top contenders in the mix for Jones’ belt has publicly come out and supported it. If this tournament goes down, it would see Blachowicz earn the title shot after knocking out Corey Anderson in devastating fashion at UFC Rio Rancho to up his win streak to three straight fights. Blachowicz has won seven of his last eight fights overall.

The Reyes vs. Santos fight makes a lot of sense as well considering both men are coming off of razor-thin losses to Jones in their last respective bouts that many thought they won. Reyes just lost a unanimous decision to Jones at UFC 247 that many felt he should have won, while Santos dropped a split decision to Jones last year at UFC 239.

With Blachowicz emerging as a legitimate contender after he knocked out Anderson, it puts Reyes and Santos in a situation where they may have to take another fight in order to run it back with Jones. Santos recently admitted he turned down the UFC’s offer of an unraked opponent, but perhaps he would be more willing to fight Reyes.

Do you like this four-man tournament idea proposed by Jan Blachowicz for the UFC light heavyweight title?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 2/20/2020.