Curtis Blaydes can also take a seat.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has been working on a heavyweight title fight between reigning 265-pound champion Francis Ngannou and former light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones, a contest that has been delayed by injuries, contract disputes (from both sides), and endless rounds of hollow (but nevertheless entertaining) trash talk.
Sounds like Ciryl Gane is just as sick of waiting as the rest of us.
That’s why “Bon Gamin” is asking for Jones to meet him at one of the promotion’s upcoming pay-per-view (PPV) events in March (and he has two to choose from). The last anyone heard from Jones he tweeted “Champion 2023” which may require Ngannou to achieve. There’s just no telling what the boxing-minded “Predator” plans to do at this stage of his career.
“I think it’s 50-50, to be honest with you, when you’re talking business and timeline,” Ngannou’s head coach, Eric Nicksick, told MMA Fighting. “I’m confident from what I saw from Francis a couple of weeks ago that if we had to be ready for March, I think we can get him ready, but I think it is cutting it a little bit short because he had to go back home and renew his visa.”
Former champion Stipe Miocic, meanwhile, remains missing in (in)action.
“Obviously they still haven’t announced anything yet with his contract and where they’re at, so 50-50 for me,” Nicksick continued. “I’m hoping for this thing, fingers crossed that we can get this deal done. If it’s not March, maybe it’s April or May, or something like that. I do know that they’re shooting for March and that Jon Jones is the opponent. Everything else is out of my hands, but if they tell me, ‘Hey, we’re fighting March 4,’ we’ll have our guy ready, that’s for sure.”
I’ll believe it when I see it. Until then it’s just fantasy matchmaking.