This past weekend at UFC 285, Jon Jones won a significant title bout, which did not come as a shock to Francis Ngannou.

The plan was for Ngannou, fresh off his March 2021 UFC Heavyweight title defense, to officially usher in Jones, a two-division UFC champion at Light Heavyweight, to the sport’s top division. Instead, “The Predator” was let go from the promotion because he was unable to successfully renegotiate the terms of his contract with them.

Jones stepped in for Ngannou and won through guillotine submission in the first round, defeating Ciryl Gane. The outcome has everyone who is active in mixed martial arts (MMA) excited about the idea of Ngannou taking on Jones, but regrettably, it does not look that this fight is destined to take place.

The battle was effectively finished as soon as Jones got a hold of Gane, and it took just a little more than two minutes for Jones to get Gane to tap out. The majority of people believed that wrestling would play an important role in Jones’ triumph, and Ngannou recognized that if this was the case during his victory by unanimous decision, “Bones” probably wouldn’t have had any problems.

“A fight that I would have liked to have, but unfortunately we are not there,” Ngannou said on his YouTube channel about facing Jones. “That fight didn’t happen and probably will never happen now that he’s on a very long contract with the UFC. So that’s not happening anymore.

“Not very surprising, because I knew if I could outwrestle Ciryl, Jon would be another story. He would have a hard night if Jon would lay hands on him.

“What I do know is Jon was rushing,” he continued. “Jon didn’t want to give him space because he I think he was afraid of something. Maybe of getting exhausted at some point, not be able to grab him, so he was chasing him from the first minute to grab him. He walked out pretty good, but it tells me something. He wasn’t very confident. He was rushing, which is good for him.”