“Well, I think Jon Jones makes more sense for me but either way, I’m going to fight”.
Francis Ngannou thinks a super-fight against Jon Jones makes more sense than a trilogy bout with Stipe Miocic at this point, but the newly-crowned UFC heavyweight champion is open to a rematch with Stipe if that’s what the UFC wants.
Ngannou won the heavyweight title by flattening Miocic with a vicious left hook in last night’s blockbuster UFC 260 PPV main event, and ‘The Predator’ wasted no time in calling out Jones during the post-fight press conference.
“Personally, no, I don’t feel I need [to fight Stipe again],” Ngannou, who KO’d Miocic in the second round, told reporters at the UFC APEX Center in Las Vegas (h/t MMA Fighting). “He said I won’t be a champion until he’s retired so maybe he’ll retire but if not, I’ll still be down to fight him. I have a loss against him and his time as the greatest heavyweight of all time. He makes sense for me to fight if needed.”
“Well, I think Jon Jones makes more sense for me but either way, I’m going to fight. If Jon Jones doesn’t come to heavyweight, the division has to move. As the new heavyweight champion, I decided to move on, put more activity in the division than [Stipe] has been in the past two or three years.
“I might be the champ but I don’t make the call,” he clarified. “I’m just a fighter. So the UFC decides what really happens. But for what I want or what I like, yes, I would like that [fight with Jon Jones].”
Jones has been bulking up to heavyweight since 2020 but, in a bizarre turn of events, Dana White recently insinuated that the former UFC light heavyweight champion is scared to fight Ngannou for the title. The UFC president’s comments come after ‘Bones’ tweeted ‘show me the money’ following Ngannou’s KO victory over Miocic.
Show me the money
— BONY (@JonnyBones) March 28, 2021
If anyone is wondering if I really want to fight, the answer is yes. I also really want to get paid.
— BONY (@JonnyBones) March 28, 2021
Perhaps the UFC brass should, indeed, show Jones the money as a super-fight with Ngannou would be one of the biggest fights in the promotion’s history.
As for Ngannou, the Cameroonian knockout artist wants to return to the octagon to defend his heavyweight title in July or August.
“I’m definitely going to take some time off. Knowing that I’ve been in a very long training camp, I was very exhausted at some point. But I would like to fight as soon as possible. So I’ll be ready by summer, July or August, I think.”