Dana White, president of the UFC, doesn’t think a fight between Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou will ever happen and doesn’t think it would be competitive if it did. This is despite the fact that the mixed martial arts world as a whole is desperate to see this fight.
Jones made his return to the octagon at UFC 285, after an absence of more than three years, and defeated Ciryl Gane by submission in a little over two minutes to win the heavyweight championship. This victory allowed Jones to fill the void left by Ngannou, who had previously held the title but had decided to leave the promotion. White actually rejected in an interview that Ngannou would return to the UFC to fight Jones, and if a deal were to be made, White is convinced that the dream fight would look very similar to the UFC 285 matchup.
“I’m not interested, I tried to make that fight for two years,” White told TMZ. “He didn’t want the fight, and he left here without having another deal in place. I know how the boxing world is, but Francis didn’t want to do it. I tried to make that fight for two years.
“And let me tell you what, and a lot of other people feel this way, I think that’s exactly how the fight would’ve gone if [Ngannou] was in there [instead of Gane]. [Francis] and Ciryl had a five-round war, and if Ciryl doesn’t go for that submission, Ciryl probably wins that fight — at the end of the fifth round.”
The road currently points in the direction of a bout between Jones and Stipe Miocic, who is also a former heavyweight champion. Initial discussions have pointed towards the fight taking place in July at UFC 290, but White believes that this may be too soon for the bout to take place. Despite this, he has not totally ruled out the possibility of the fight taking place during this time period.
“Here’s the thing that makes this so awesome, you have the greatest mixed martial artist of all-time facing the greatest heavyweight of all-time,” White said. “It literally doesn’t get any better than that. These are the kinds of fights you dream about making.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if he fights Stipe and then retires, and doesn’t fight again.”
Jones is interested in facing Miocic for his reputation, but the heavyweight division is in such a bad place that White wouldn’t be amazed if, after a fight with Miocic, “Bones” moved on to the next part of his life, even though he was just starting a new eight-fight deal.