Dominick Reyes and Jan Blachowicz to fight for vacant light heavyweight title
Dominick Reyes and Jan Blachowicz will now be fighting for the vacant UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 253 in September.
On Monday, Jon Jones announced that he came to an agreement with the UFC to give up his 205 pound championship in order to move up to heavyweight. Also on Monday, it was announced that Reyes and Blachowicz would be fighting one another.
UFC president Dana White then confirmed to SportsCenter on Tuesday that Reyes and Blachowicz will be fighting for the vacant title. The promotion also released two photos on their social media platforms. One which said the Reyes and Blachowicz bout is for the title. The other showed a picture of Jones with a quote saying “Jon Jones informed UFC officials that he was giving up his title to potentially purse a heavyweight run.”
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While originally White said Francis Ngannou would be fighting Stipe Miocic next, many speculate that Jones may end up throwing a wrench into those plans especially since nothing is set in stone within that division.
As the heavyweight now appears to have some moving parts, the light heavyweight division is ready to move forward.
Reyes (12-1) will be fighting in his second straight world title bout. In February he lost his first professional fight by a close controversial decision to Jones at UFC 247. He is currently ranked No.1 in the official UFC light heavyweight rankings.
Blachowicz (26-8), of Poland, is red hot right now as he’s currently on a three-fight winning streak and had won seven of his past eight fights. In the impressive run he’s knocked out former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold and has a decision win over former Strikeforce champ Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.
The current UFC 253 lineup is listed below:
Israel Adesanya (C) vs. Paulo Costa (middleweight championship fight)
Jan Blachowicz vs. Dominick Reyes (for vacant light heavyweight title)
Marion Reneau vs. Ketlen Vieira
Kai Kara-France vs. Brandon Royval
Claudia Gadelha vs. Yan Xiaonan
Hakeem Dawodu vs. Zubaira Tukhugov
Sarah Alpar vs. Jessica-Rose Clark
Randy Costa vs. Journey Newson
Mirsad Bektic vs. Eduardo Garagorri
Jake Matthews vs. Diego Sanchez
Brad Riddell vs. Alex da Silva
Nate Landwehr vs. Shane Young