Since former perennial light heavyweight champion Jon Jones made his heavyweight move official in 2020, one of the many talked about fights for him is one against Francis Ngannou. Fans want to see how Jones fares against a bigger, stronger, and more powerful opponent, and rightly so.
But a lot of things have happened since then, and the champ, for one, has since moved on from the idea.
“No, I’m done with that fight,” Ngannou said during the UFC 270 pre-fight presser last week. “I’ve been waiting for that fight for so long. After Stipe, it was supposed to be Jon Jones, and that never happened. I don’t know why. So I moved on.”
Then there’s the uncertainty of Ngannou’s current contract situation after having fought out the final fight in his deal on Saturday against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270. To make matters slightly more unfavorable, “The Predator” is set to have surgery in March and may need to sit out the next nine to ten months to recover.
But if you ask UFC president Dana White, Ngannou vs. Jones is still on the table. As he told correspondent Laura Sanko in a recent ESPN+ Q&A, it’s a fight they’re hoping to pull off for 2022.
“I’m hoping that that will be one of the big fights this year. If we could pull that one off, we definitely will,” White said.
Jones has yet to finalize his heavyweight debut. He hasn’t seen action for nearly two years now.
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