White: Jones will fight Miocic-Ngannou winner

• MMA columnist for ESPN.com
• Analyst for “MMA Live”
• Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun

The first heavyweight fight of Jon Jones’ storied MMA career will have a UFC championship on the line.

UFC president Dana White told TMZ this week that Jones (26-1) will face the winner of a heavyweight title fight between Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou, which is scheduled to headline UFC 260 on March 27. This has been the expectation since Jones vacated his light heavyweight championship last August and announced a pending move to heavyweight, but White has now confirmed the plan.

“We could have that fight [Jones versus the winner of Miocic, Ngannou] this summer,” White told TMZ of a potential time frame for the bout.

Jones, 33, became the youngest champion in UFC history in 2001, when he won the 205-pound title at age 23. He was stripped of the title twice for disciplinary and drug testing reasons — in 2015 and 2017 — however every single one of his appearances since 2001 have been with a championship on the line.

Fighting out of Albuquerque, Jones has never fought at heavyweight but has teased a potential move multiple times over the course of his career.

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