Dana White not interested in Francis Ngannou | MMA News
UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones would love to combat former titleholder Francis Ngannou next, but Ngannou is not under UFC contract. He’s signed with the Professional Fighters League (PFL).
UFC matchmakers have been working to put collectively a title unification bout between Jones and interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, but Jones does not appear interested in combating the heavy-hitting Brit. He does not suppose a win over Aspinall provides that a lot, if something, to his legacy.
UFC CEO Dana White stated that Jones is ‘speaking loopy’ when requested about the potential of Jones dealing with Ngannou during the UFC 316 Post-Fight Press Conference on Saturday.
“Tom Aspinall is the guy,” White stated. “Listen, if the guy (Jones) wants to retire and doesn’t want to fight, there’s nothing you can do… I’ll do what I can to make the fight if we can. If he’s talking talking that crazy sh*t, I didn’t realize that.”
Jones and Ngannou agreed to combat each different in an exchange on social media, but White confirmed no curiosity. The combat promotion tried to e book Jones vs. Ngannou for Jones’ heavyweight debut but could not come to phrases with Ngannou in contract negotiations. Part of the hangup was Ngannou wanting the flexibility to settle for boxing matches.
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Ngannou left the group as the heavyweight titleholder after his contract expired in December 2023. He inked a deal with the PFL and secured profitable boxing bouts against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. White shut down any speak of making an attempt to carry Ngannou back to the group, or working with the PFL to make a combat against Jones occur.
“It’s Aspinall’s fight. I mean, we’ve been talking forever about it and it’s his fight,” White stated. “You can’t make people fight. If Jon doesn’t want to fight, we can’t make him fight. We can try to make him fight. We can throw things at him that inspire him to want to fight.”
“I don’t have Ngannou under contact, and Aspinall is the guy,” White added.
Asked if he had been in a place to, would he attempt to re-sign Ngannou, White responded, “Probably not.”
White believes he’ll still give you the chance to put collectively a combat between Jones and Aspinall and revealed that Jones agreed to the match.
“Jon Jones agreed to do that fight. Jon Jones was offered a deal and accepted the deal,” White stated.
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