Jones to get winner of Bader/Lil Nog, predicts "two fights away from a title shot".

If you caught Inside MMA Friday night on HDNet you noticed a short video where Jon "Bones" Jones was interviewed at the gym. Bones commented on his next opponent as well as how soon he expects to be fighting for the title. Check out what Jones had to say after the jump.

 "Right now im waiting for Ryan bader and Lil Nog to fight eachother and i'll fight the winner of that, and im predicting that im about two fights away from a title shot. I had a meeting with Dana and Lorenzo and thats kind of where were going with it. They didnt really say two fights. They said you know, you beat the winner of Bader/Lil Nog, we'll give you one more fight, we'll see you know how you win the fights, depending on the fashion of the finish, then you know, we'll give you a title shot."

 Remember how adament Dana was about Jones next opponent being ranked in the top eight? Not top five, not top ten, but top eight?

"Vladimir Matyushenko is a guy who I have a a lot of respect for and I didn’t think it was going to happen that easy. ‘Bones’ Jones is the real deal and he just catapulted himself tonight into the top eight in the world. Tonight solidified it. To go in and do what he did to Vladimir Matyushenko, and make it look as easy as he did tonight, it cements it for me.

This kid is one of the top eight in the world in that weight division. He’s got to keep his head together, stay focused and keep doing all the right things in training. He’s smart, good looking and bad ass. He’s going to make a lot of money — this kid is going to do very well. Right now in the 205-pound division, all these guys are fighting each other. When the smoke clears and the dust settles, Jon Jones will fight one of the top eight guys in the world for his next fight.”

Personally I assumed this meant Forrest Griffin, but the winner of Bader/Lil Nog would surely be ranked just outside of the top five in the division and no worse then eigth so this makes perfect sense now. Still this is surprising considering what Jones recently said reguarding a potential fight with Ryan Bader.

“I’m predicting a fight against someone like Ryan Bader, but I really wouldn’t want to fight against Ryan,” Jones recently told MMA Fighting. “I think we’re pretty close to the same spot career-wise. I wouldn’t really want to fight someone who’s in the same category as me. I’d rather fight someone who’s really established, someone with a really big following, someone where there’s a big risk of me losing the fight. I want to try and elevate and make it to the top as fast as possible. I just want a fight with a lot of risk.

“I’m not one to call out anyone. I never call people out. But I’d like to have someone who’s in the top ten, an established big name fighter. Someone like Forrest [Griffin] or [Antonio Rogerio] Nogueira or Rich Franklin. Someone up there in the top five or top 10. Someone where a win would be really huge for my career.

“I feel like I’m at the point where a win over me would be big for someone’s career, no matter who they are. I want to make sure it’s the same for me, where if I win it will be huge for me as well.”

With Forrest now apparently out of the picture and Bader being the favorite against Lil Nog it appears that Jones may get exactly what he recently vocalized that he did not want. Reguardless of the next opponent it is good news that Jones is now on that path to the title shot that so many fans are clamoring to see, imo Machida has the best chance to stop Jones, but in another twelve to eighteen months who knows how good he could be?