The former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen has defended UFC boss Dana White, claiming Francis Ngannou to be the roadblock in his highly-anticipated heavyweight clash with Jon Jones.
Jones vs Ngannou has easily been one of the most talked-about MMA fights for a couple of years now. However, the deal never reached fruition and differences with White led to the-then UFC heavyweight champion leaving the promotion altogether.
Following his departure from the UFC, “The Predator” explored other opportunities such as boxing fight Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. He also signed with the PFL, becoming their heavyweight champion by defeating Renan Ferreira.
Despite no plans to ever return to the UFC, Ngannou believes a superfight with Jones is still not off the table. In a recent interview, he claimed that Turki Al-Sheikh, the current Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia, could intervene and convince White to cross-promote with the PFL for this bout.
However, Ngannou’s narrative that White is blocking the fight with Jones didn’t sit well with MMA fighter turned analyst Sonnen.
Here’s what Sonnen said while putting the blame on the former UFC heavyweight champ for avoiding the Jones fight:
“Poor Francis was in a world title fight, in the fight capital of the world, in the world’s biggest promotion, where he is going to headline. He was not the champion of the world. He wanted to be. He was going to be given that opportunity. Do you understand? Okay. Because it was at that time that it had already been announced by Dana White, this giant obstacle, that when Jon Jones returns to heavyweight, it will be for the belt. So now we don’t, now we don’t only have an obstacle, it doesn’t even fully have to do with Francis. Francis didn’t even have the belt. He was scheduled to fight Stipe, a fight that Francis had already lost. Like, we didn’t know who the champion was going to be, but whoever it was going to be, we were going to stick to the deal and the plan that when Jon comes up, Jon will contest with that person. It’s important that you understand that, because that one detail, in and of itself, that timeline excludes the possibility that Francis was being picked on. It was an open statement that Jon will contend whenever Jon comes back, if he ever comes back, right into a world title fight. That happened to be Francis. And what happened next? Jon came back. So now we have Jon, and we have Francis, and we’re going to get to see Jon versus Francis. People are talking about it. You’re talking about it. Dana’s already announced it’s going to happen.”
Sonnen, being the company-man he is, believes that White cannot be blamed at all for Ngannou and Jones not being able to settle their rivalry inside the Octagon.
Although Jones first fought at heavyweight after over a year of Ngannou’s last UFC outing, “The American Gangster” believes if “The Predator” had not parted ways with the UFC, he would’ve fought “Bones” instead of Ciryl Gane in March 2023.
“But somebody blinked. That somebody, I would view to be the obstacle in this equation. Do you agree? Because that somebody was not Dana White. That somebody was not Jon Jones. As a matter of fact, Dana White went through with the plan exactly as he had previously stated, which is that Jon went right into a title fight. And it’s important that you understand this, because Francis left. So to make believe now that you wanted to do something, when you were in a position to do it, and so now the only thing stopping this fight is Dana White.”
Ngannou is promising his fans worldwide a big comeback to combat sports. In boxing, he definitely can be a part of big fights like the Fury rematch or a possible showdown against the hard-hitting Deontay Wilder. In MMA, he’ll have the option to defend his title against the top heavyweight contenders in the promotion.