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Jon Jones, Francis Ngannou come face-to-face at PFL event

IMG_6598by:Nick Kosko•06/17/23•

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(Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)

Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou came face-to-face at a PFL event Friday night, but it wasn’t to set up a long teased fight between the two heavyweights.

Ngannou recently left the UFC via free agency and signed with PFL, and is expected to fight in 2024. Jones won the vacated UFC heavyweight title over Ciryl Gane back in March but the two giants might never fight now.

Or will they? Jones, who was at the PFL Atlanta event as a cornerman, and Ngannou went up to one another with mutual respect and expressed desire in a future fight.

“We over here, you over there,” Ngannou said to Jones.

“You know you don’t want no smoke,” Jones responded.

Ngannou fired back though.

“I want that smoke, you know that,” he said.

“I’ve always been king,” Jones responded. “Since the day I started this. And I’m gonna die a king.

Jones and Ngannou shook hands after those words. That’s where the UFC’s argued GOAT made a claim.

“We’ll see,” Jones said. “We could’ve saw. But you left.”

“You sat back three years,” Ngannou said. 

That’s where Jones said “I had to get to a good enough size to kick your (expletive).” Jones moved up from a long reign as light-heavyweight champion (205 pounds) to the next weight class (265 lbs.) 

“I will always be down for a fight,” Ngannou said. “I’ll be down to fight you. But I want you.”

This is where it gets dicey. Although there’s no rule against it, the UFC notoriously does not do cross promotions with other MMA leagues such as PFL, Bellator or ONE.
Now that stinks considering Ngannou left the UFC as the heavyweight champion before Jones could fight him.

Ngannou, 36, hasn’t fought since January 22, 2022 when he defended and unified the UFC heavyweight championship against Gane. He finished his UFC career with six straight wins, including his last two over former champion Stipe Miocic and Gane.

Ngannou will fight in PFL’s Super Fight division, which was created to attract fighters to sign deals with favorable terms, including bigger guarantees and bigger cuts of pay-per-view revenue.

Jones has no set opponent for his first title defense at heavyweight. Although there’s been teases of boxing and MMA fights against boxing superstar and champion Tyson Fury. That stems back from a Joe Rogan conversation in May.

Jones is 27-1 with one no-contest in his career, although many contest his lone loss (which was a disqualification). Many pundits claim it should be stricken from Jones’ record due to a less-than-popular rule.

Maybe Jones and Ngannou will eventually fight, but it doesn’t seem likely at this point.