Jon Jones isn’t completely giving up hope on facing Francis Ngannou, but he knows it’s much more likely that he’s already fought for the final time in his career.
Appearing as part of the first MVP MMA card on Saturday, Jones reacted to Ngannou’s devastating first-round knockout over Philipe Lins and then acknowledging that he would still like to face the former two-division champion after they were rumored to meet in the UFC several years ago. As much as Jones would love the chance to fight Ngannou, he’s still under contract with the UFC and it’s difficult to imagine the promotion is going to just let him go to cash in for a different fight with another promoter.
“I’ve got to focus on trying to get out of my UFC contract,” Jones said about potentially facing Ngannou during the Rousey vs. Carano broadcast. “That’s going to be the difficult part if this fight is going to happen. I don’t think Dana [White] is interested in doing business with Francis.
“Doing it with MVP would probably be the only way to make it happen. If we can get out my contract, that would be great.”
Jones was still holding onto the UFC heavyweight title when he was in talks for a potential showdown against Tom Aspinall but ultimately he decided to relinquish the belt and retire instead.
A few weeks later, Jones declared plans to compete again after the UFC announced a show taking place at the White House in June. Despite his desire to compete as part of the historic event, UFC CEO Dana White repeatedly stated that he couldn’t trust Jones to actually show up for that card and there was no way he would allow him to compete at that event.
That led to Jones effectively retiring from the sport again and he says it’s much more likely that he’s already fought for the final time in his career than the Ngannou matchup actually happening.
“I think I am [retired],” Jones said. “I think I am. I have a really good agent, the Kawa brothers, and these guys keep me busy. I’m constantly on the road, creating my own businesses and endorsing other businesses.
“So I feel like if things weren’t going so well, I’d feel the pressure to get back in the cage but things are going so well on a professional level, that I really have no reason to fight anymore.”
As far as his opinion on Ngannou’s win from Saturday, Jones was impressed but he also couldn’t ignore that Lins was massively outsized and overpowered before the fight ever started.
“Tonight he looked good but he also fought against a guy that weighed like 220 pounds,” Jones said about Ngannou. “That guy was afraid to engage with Francis. He definitely wasn’t on the same kickboxing level as Francis.
“I thought Francis was very impressive tonight. He’s starting to throw kicks. He threw really nice high kicks tonight. I’m just excited to see what’s next for him.”
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