Last week, UFC Light Heavyweight 
Champion Jon Jones revealed one of his goals for 2014, and that was to make a permanent step up to Heavyweight and take on Cain Velasquez. Even for Jones, whose dominance of his weight class has given him a lot of confidence, this was a bold statement. Jones’ match with Glover Teixeira has been announced several times, and the Brazilian is the number one contender, but the match his not currently ‘officially’ on the books. This is a bad sign for Teixeira, who could wind up waiting a while and fighting for a vacant title. Though Jones is commonly thought to have cleaned out the light heavyweight division, there are several challenges remaining there. Aside from Teixeira, top big man Daniel Cormier is heading down to light heavyeight in the hopes of challenging Jones, there is a rematch with Alexander Gustafsson, the only man to make him look human. Yet it appears Jones may have fought for the last time at light heavyweight. Now, Velasquez could be in line for shoulder surgery, but his next competition for the Heavyweight belt is not set in stone, either. While Fabricio Werdum is probably the man most deserving of a title shot, Werdum has been very inactive and is a relative unknown to the mass public. With that match being so unappealing, the UFC may shelve Velasquez while he gets his shoulder fix, and have him return to face Jones sometime in the summer of 2014. Should Jones go ahead and vacate the light heavyweight title, this leaves a group of three men to compete for the belt. Cormier, Teixiera and Gustafsson would have to find out who’s tough enough to claim the strap. An interesting scenario that could develop would be Cormier heading to light heavyweight and cleaning up, then returning to Heavyweight to face a bulked up Jones in a showdown at Cormier’s preferred weight class. No matter what happens, Jones moving to heavyweight in 2014 came from his own lips, and it opens up a lot of possibilities for matches in two of the most interesting weight classes in the UFC.
