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Francis Ngannou: Jon Jones fight will ‘probably never happen’

James Herrick / UFC / March 9, 2023

Francis Ngannou: Jon Jones fight will ‘probably never happen’

UFC fans are feigning over the idea of seeing a fight between Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones. Despite fan interest, that fight looks increasingly unlikely as Ngannou has claimed that the fight will probably never happen.

“(It’s) a fight that I would have liked to have, but unfortunately, we are not there,” Ngannou said in a video on his YouTube channel. “That fight didn’t happen and probably will never happen now that he’s on a very long contract with the UFC. That’s not happening anymore.”
Quote via The Score

It seems like this fight will never happen as long as Jones is in the UFC. As most know, the UFC released Ngannou and made him a free agent. With Jones under contract and Ngannou on the market, there are massive contractual barriers preventing this fight. As of right now, Ngannou and the UFC seem unwilling to resume negotiations.

On the side of Jones, he signed an eight-fight deal with the UFC before UFC 285. That ruins the hope of this fight happening outside of the UFC.

Basically, for this fight to happen, Ngannou needs to return to the UFC or Jones to needs to fight out his contract. I would not be overly optimistic either of those things happen.

I would not completely close the book on this fight though. There is one rule when booking massive fights — if makes dollars it makes sense. Well, a fight between Jones and Ngannou makes dollars so I would not count it out.

If anything, the stock on this fight has only grown. At UFC 285, Jones proved to be one of the best heavyweights alive as he submitted Ciryl Gane to win the heavyweight championship. Now that he has proven he is still an elite fighter, a fight with Ngannou is only more intriguing. Jones and Ngannou have traded their fair share of disses and slams too, which only makes a potential fight between the pair more interesting.