Francis Ngannou would still love to fight Jon Jones, but he just doesn’t see it happening — with the biggest reason being UFC CEO Dana White.
“If you can get past Dana White, it could happen, [but] that’s a massive obstacle,” Ngannou told Sportsbook Review about a fight with Jones. “But personally, I don’t care. I’m doing well. I’m doing my stuff at my pace. I don’t care. That won’t change my sleep for me.
“Finishing my career without fighting Jon Jones would be OK. I have tried to fight Jon Jones for four years since I fought Jairzinho Rozenstruik [at UFC 249] back in 2020. I’ve been trying to fight Jon Jones and then they were holding it out like a trap until the moment that I was about to leave and then they said, ‘OK, here’s the Jon Jones fight.’ But it was bait. I felt they were very tricky.”
Ngannou made the decision to leave the UFC as heavyweight champion to sign with the PFL in January 2023. Since then, Ngannou has had two massive boxing pay days in losses to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
“The Predator” did return to MMA as he made his long-awaited PFL debut at Battle of the Giants in October where he decimated Renan Ferreira in the first round via TKO. Ngannou still has big fights remaining in his career — both in MMA and boxing — and if the dream matchup with Jones doesn’t happen, he’d be fine with it, although Ngannou believes he’d have the advantage.
“Yes, Jon Jones would be a great fight, a fantastic fight,” Ngannou said. “I have always hoped for that fight (but) my hope and my expectation for that fight has faded over time. …
“I have a lot of fights to get a measurement of his light heavyweight career and I have way less to look at with him as a heavyweight. I think he’s by far the best light heavyweight. His cage time as a light heavyweight was over a decade. At heavyweight he has two fights. He has barely done three rounds.”
