Michael Bisping has put Jon Jones back in the conversation, saying an Alex Pereira victory could be the kind of result that tempts the former UFC champion into changing his mind after leaving amid contractual disagreements. Pereira is set to fight Ciryl Gane on Sunday for the interim heavyweight title at UFC Freedom 250, and Bisping said that if Pereira gets the job done, Jones may see a fight worth chasing again.
That is why Jones is being searched now. The bout is happening at the White House, and the winner is expected to move on toward Tom Aspinall to unify the belts, giving Sunday’s result a direct line to the shape of the heavyweight division. Bisping said he would want to see a Jon Jones-Alex Pereira fight, even while acknowledging it would not reflect well after what happened with Aspinall, whose own path has been slowed by surgeries to repair eye injuries from pokes in his 2025 title fight with Gane.
Bisping’s view turns on one simple idea: Pereira winning would make the impossible look possible. He said that if Pereira becomes a three-weight division champion, he has a feeling Jones would reach out and ask for that fight. That matters because Jones left the UFC largely over contract issues, delayed a matchup with Aspinall for months before it never happened, and then finally vacated as Aspinall was promoted from interim to full champion. A return would not just be about nostalgia. It would require Jones to decide that the next version of the division is worth re-entering.
At the same time, Bisping is not selling the upset as the safe call. He said he is leaning toward Gane because he has the heavyweight track record, while Pereira still has unanswered questions at the weight despite his elite strike work. Bisping said neither man has much quit in him and called the fight a likely Fight of the Night, but he also made clear that Gane’s familiarity at heavyweight is the edge he trusts most.
So the immediate consequence of Sunday’s fight is bigger than one interim belt. If Pereira wins, the UFC gets a new champion with titles in three divisions and a fresh lane toward Jones. If Gane wins, the title path stays pointed toward Aspinall, and Jones remains a former champion watching from outside the cage. Either way, the result will tell the division whether the door to a Jones comeback is cracked open or shut again.
