Jump to
UFC president Dana White has shut down the idea of a cross-promotion to make the potential heavyweight blockbuster between current heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former titleholder Francis Ngannou.
“The Predator,” who’s been at odds with his former boss even until after his departure from the organization, issued his response.
Ngannou urges UFC and Dana White to ‘figure out’ Jones fight
From his end, Francis Ngannou remains hopeful about the Jones fight. The two came face-to-face in a recent PFL event, igniting talks about the dream matchup becoming a reality.
But Ngannou says the ball is now in the UFC’s court.
“I think the UFC have to figure it out and get to a point to figure out that some stuff can be done, maybe cross-promotion in order to give the fans what they want. To make this fight happen.
“As soon as they get that, as soon as they decide to give that to the fans, everything will be OK.
“All the parties are down for the fight except one.”
Dana White says a cross-promotion ‘wouldn’t work’
The idea of cross-promotion was brought up in a recent episode of the Pat McAffee show, where Dana White was a guest. The UFC boss shut it down using an old narrative.
“It wouldn’t work. Francis was here, Jon Jones wanted that fight the whole time. We tried to make the fight with Francis…
It didn’t take long for Ngannou to issue his response and point out some facts.
Dana White is more than willing to make the Mark Zuckerberg-Elon Musk fight happen
But if the conversation was about a billionaire fight between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, Dana White is completely on board. He is even building it up to be one of the most lucrative events “in the history of the world.”
“You look at these two tech guys and nobody thinks that they can fight but they want to, it’s real, and we’ll see how this thing ends up,” told McAfee. “You know me, I’m working on it. I think that this will be the biggest fight in the history of the world and I think it will set a record that will never be broken if it happened.
“I like putting on fights that people want to see like this.
“This is the type of crossover fight that people who traditionally don’t watch fights, women, older women, younger women, you name it, everybody that could care less about a fight, this crosses over to everyone.”
Dana White’s plan for Jon Jones
Regarding his current champion, Dana White is also looking at a potential crossover against Tyson Fury.
“I’m telling Tyson Fury, who I respect very much: If you really want to find out who the baddest man on the planet is, I will make that fight,” White said during a media scrum in early June.
“I will make Jon Jones vs. Tyson Fury in the octagon. And we’ll figure it out. We figured out how to pay Floyd (Mayweather), we’ll figure out how to pay you too, Tyson.”
Jones, who won the vacant title against Ciryl Gane in March, is looking at a fight against former champion Stipe Miocic. He is also considering it to be his retirement fight.
About the author
