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Jon Jones explains why he vacated title, Anthony Smith lauds him for ‘noble’ decision

If he wanted to, Jon Jones could’ve kept the light heavyweight title, gone for heavyweight gold, and possibly become the UFC’s fifth “double-champ.” Instead, the 33-year-old “Bones” decided to give up the 205-pound belt before moving up to chase after bigger, heavier competition.

Looking through his ever-interesting Twitter feed, Jones never really explained why he came up with this decision, until Thursday evening.

I vacated the light heavyweight championship because I knew my heavyweight goals were going to take some time. I wasn’t going to play games with the contenders and make people fight interim championship belts.