UFC 146: Jon Jones Considers Challenging Junior Dos Santos

UFC LIght Heavyweight champ Jon Jones has his hands full with a title challenge from former champ Rashad Evans at UFC 145: Jones vs Evans on April 21 in Atlanta, Georgia. Not only does Evans, one of the best in MMA at mixing striking and take downs, present a formidable stylistic challenge for Jones, but the two are heated personal rivals and former teammates as well.

Nonetheless, people are going to ask questions and Jon Jones is the kind of young guy who will think out loud while answering them. He recently sat down with New Mexico's Prickly Pair Studios (video after the jump) for an interview and they got him off on some interesting tangents.

Most notably they asked him about facing Heavyweight champ Junior dos Santos. Dos Santos may or may not be short of an opponent for his scheduled title defense at UFC 146 in Las Vegas given anticipated challenger Alistair Overeem's struggles with high testosterone levels and the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Here's what Jones has to say on the topic (transcribed by MMA Mania):

"You know, it's hard to even say because of two factors: First, it would be disrespectful of me to just look past Rashad completely like, 'Oh, this fight's already done.' Rashad is going to be a huge test and I'm excited for this great challenge. And you know, honestly, it is something I would totally entertain. But at the same time, I have so much respect for Junior dos Santos. He's such a cool dude, you know what I mean? He's just such a cool dude. Fighting him is just like... Me and him, he treated me like his brother when we were in Brazil together. We did a lot of fun stuff in Brazil. He's just a cool dude. Challenging him out of nowhere would be hitting him upside the head like, 'Where did Jones come from? Why does Jones want to fight me?' I'm not saying he's scared of me, by any means, I'm sure he's not. If it was somebody else, I would definitely go for it. But it's Junior. I don't know, I'm not even a heavyweight so to pick a fight with Junior doesn't really make sense to me. There's a lot of work to be done in the light heavyweight division."

So in typical Jones fashion he first puts his foot in his mouth by saying the fight is something he would "totally entertain" and then spends the next 7 sentences backing out of it.

Personally, I'd be all for Jones facing Dos Santos but the layover is too short for him to train for the bout, not to mention that he could very well be injured against Evans and that would leave Dos Santos once again without an opponent.