Francis Ngannou hits back at UFC CEO Dana White following recent Jon Jones comments
22/08/2024 19:35
Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou has clapped back at UFC CEO Dana White following the boss’ recent comments claiming that Ngannou didn’t want to fight Jon Jones.
When Francis Ngannou was reigning over the UFC heavyweight division, fans salivated over a potential matchup between him and current heavyweight champion, Jon Jones.
Although it was a fantasy matchup, it was one that could have quite easily been put together considering ‘Bones’ was making his move up to heavyweight and ‘The Predator’ held the UFC title.
Dana White claims it was Francis Ngannou’s fault the matchup was never made
Jones is currently preparing for a fight against Stipe Miocic, with it likely to take place in November despite it having not been announced by the promotion yet.
UFC fans have been goading the champion that he has been ‘ducking’ current interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, to which he has defended his stance multiple times and has even recently hinted that he will retire following his fight against Miocic.
With that, UFC CEO Dana White claimed that he believes Jones will stick around to fight the Brit following his fight against Stipe and even went on to pull back the curtain on why a fight between Ngannou and Jones never came to fruition.
“I have zero animosity towards Francis (Ngannou). Francis was out of my world a long time ago. That guy over there (Sean Shelby) and Mick (Maynard) are another story,” White began to explain this past Tuesday during the post-fight press conference for Dana White’s Contender Series.
“It’s a long story, (Sean Shelby) did everything he could in his power to make Jon Jones vs Francis (Ngannou). The fight did not happen and let me tell you what, it wasn’t because of Jon Jones.
“Jon is a very unique individual to deal with, Jon Jones will fight everybody. He wanted Francis… He wanted that fight so bad. These are f*cking facts and since everybody has been such douchebags about this I’m coming out with a nice little punch in the face for all you f*cks that think Jon Jones isn’t the greatest of all time.
“You can’t make people fight and we couldn’t make Francis fight,” White continued.
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Francis Ngannou hits back at Dana White and defends himself from comments
Despite Dana’s adamance that it was Ngannou’s fault the fight never came to fruition, the UFC boss was at least apologetic about something.
During UFC 305 fight week recently, Francis Ngannou’s name was removed from promotional videos, which Dana White has taken full responsibility for and has apologized for.
This Thursday evening, Ngannou took place in a PFL press conference with his upcoming opponent, Renan Ferreira. The two are scheduled to clash for the PFL super fight heavyweight title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 19.
During the press conference, ‘The Predator’ defended himself from the UFC boss’ comments, stating that it wasn’t him who didn’t want the Jones fight.
“I think that’s the new narrative since he needs to say something either way. But as far as I’m concerned, it was Jon Jones that didn’t want to fight me, according to them,” Ngannou began to explain at the press conference.
“And so many times that we sat down in meetings and they were like ‘It can’t happen, Jon Jones doesn’t want to fight anymore’, so I think the guy who controls the narrative can say whatever he wants.
“But they chose the narrative, I was the one requesting the Jon Jones fight but I didn’t want it to be a trap to get into some deal and get into something that I didn’t want, I wanted to be straight and square. So yes, I wanted to fight Jon Jones but in good condition, not just to fight to be paid out,” Ngannou finished.
