Jon Jones and Tyron Woodley set to defend titles at UFC 235 in Las Vegas, Nevada

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Jon Jones is serious about keeping active in 2019. As long as Jones is able to be licensed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, his next fight will be against Anthony Smith at UFC 235 on March 2.

Dana White told TMZ, Jones will file an application for licensure with the NSAC later this week. If approved, he will return and fight at the T-Mobile Arena against the #3 ranked fighter in his division.

Recently, picogram amounts of a long-term metabolite showed up in Jones’ USADA tests and the NSAC refused to allow the scrap with Alexander Gustafsson to happen without a hearing, pushing UFC 232 to Los Angeles on short notice. The UFC and USADA agreed that the metabolites found were most likely left over from the previous incident that Jones had already served a suspension over, allowing the California commission to let the fight happen.

After the fight, Jones made it clear that he wanted to defend against Daniel Cormier. However, Smith and Jones have been going back and forth on social media as of late after a tense UFC 232 post-interview exchange. Smith is the rightful challenger to the strap, coming off a big 2018 which saw Lionheart fight four times, finishing Rashad Evans, Shogun Rua, and Volkan Oezdemir.

Smith heads into UFC 235 on a three-fight win streak after moving up to light heavyweight, unintimidated by the current 205-pound king ahead of their bout in Las Vegas.

According to Ariel Helwani on Twitter, the bout that is signed and official for March 2 is Tyron Woodley vs Kamaru Usman for the undisputed welterweight championship in the co-main event. Helwani says, “while Colby Covington was ready to go for UFC 235, UFC chose to go with Usman because his stock rose in their eyes after defeating Rafael Dos Anjos.” Usman was the clear choice for the organization because he is always ready to fight anyone on short notice, despite being injured.

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Joey Torres

Joey Torres is a Co-Founder of The Scrap, and a dedicated storyteller with a passion for Pro Wrestling and Combat Sports. With a Master of Science in Integrated Design, Business & Technology from the University of Southern California, Joey combines creativity and branding to bring compelling stories to life while bringing refreshingly original content to the world of sports media.

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