UFC president Dana White claims that he has “absolutely moved on” from the idea of former Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones fighting at heavyweight.
Jones vacated his UFC light heavyweight title last summer to make his intentions known that he was moving up to heavyweight in 2021 and wanted to challenge for the title. He has spent the last year bulking up to get stronger and was heavily expected to fight the winner of the UFC 260 main event between Francis Ngannou and Stipe Miocic, which Ngannou won via second-round knockout. However, after going through a very public contract negotiation with White for his move up to heavyweight, it appears that move is off the table – at least for now.
Speaking to TMZ Sports, Jones said that he has officially “moved on” from the idea of “Bones” fighting at Heavyweight and instead will be giving Derrick Lewis the title shot against Ngannou.
“Yeah, I’ve absolutely moved on. Listen, I put on fights every Saturday. We have a window where we try to build some fights and make some things happen,” White said. “If the fights don’t happen within that window, we move on, and realistically, I mean I’ve been saying it since the beginning, Derrick Lewis is the guy who should be getting the title shots. He beat Francis Ngannou. He’s next in line, he’s coming off of great performances and that’s a wrap. We’re moving on.” (Transcribed by BJPENN.com)
It would be really unfortunate if Jones vs Ngannou never comes to fruition. It’s hard to imagine White would just throw away arguably the biggest fight in the history of the sport. It could very well be a negotiating tactic. It appears that they are really far off on a contract, meaning it could take some time to come to fruition. Jones-Ngannou is a fight that has to be made at some point. The question is when will it finally happen. Only time will tell.
Do you think we will see Dana White book Jon Jones at heavyweight agianst Francis Ngannou?