Jon Jones was watching intently as Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier fought for 25 minutes at the UFC 252 main event. The current light heavyweight champion again brought up plans to move up a division, promising he will get that heavyweight title “very soon.”
The rightful number one contender though, isn’t having any of it, as Francis Ngannou says he’d be “shocked” if Jones manages to skip the line for a title shot.
“Come on, Jonny. I’m still right here. You can sit down and wait your turn,” Ngannou told Brett Okamoto. “I would be shocked if UFC let him pass me.”
Ngannou is currently the number two ranked heavyweight contender, behind Cormier, and Dana White again reiterated that he will be next in line.
“Francis (Ngannou) is definitely next,” White said on the UFC 252 post-fight press conference. “You can’t jump over Francis. Francis has been out there destroying everybody. If you look at how long ago it was that he got that title shot — he’s worked his way back. It belongs to Francis Ngannou.
“But yeah, Jon Jones going to heavyweight is very interesting.”
Ngannou lost a decision to Miocic in 2018, but has made his way back up the heavyweight rankings. He has four straight vicious first round knockout victories, stopping contenders Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
Jones previously tried to secure a heavyweight bout with Ngannou, but was shutdown by the UFC during negotiations. If the pound-for-pound great can come to terms with the UFC on a deal, that long overdue heavyweight super-fight would surely be interesting to see, whether it’s before or after Ngannou’s title shot.
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