Francis
Ngannou is not one of those who thinks Jon Jones is
avoiding a matchup with the newly-crowned heavyweight champion.
Shortly after Ngannou knocked out Stipe
Miocic in the second round to claim the belt at UFC 260, Jones
tweeted ‘Show me the money’ in reference to a potential showdown
with “The Predator.” That prompted UFC president Dana White
to imply that the former light heavyweight king didn’t really
want a bout against the powerful Ngannou. From there, Jones
expressed his displeasure with White’s comments in a series of
tweets, some of which have been deleted.
Ngannou, however, seems to understand Jones’ position and believes
it isn’t out of line for “Bones” to request a bigger payday for
what could conceivably rank as one of the biggest fights in UFC
history.
“I believe that Jon Jones wants this fight,” Ngannou told TMZ
Sports “I believe he’ll want it to happen because it’s going to be
a massive fight, mega-fight – basically one of the biggest. I mean,
he’s been around so long, and he’s been champ for a very long time,
but I think this might be the biggest fight of his career, and
mine. So I think he wants that thing. He wants to put something
like this on his legacy, on his resume. So I truly believe he wants
this fight to happen.
“As far as the [numbers], yeah, he’s asking for money. He said,
‘Show me the money,’ but I think it makes sense. I think for a
mega-fight everyone would like to have mega-pay, such as mine. I
want that fight. I would like to have good pay, and every other
fighter out there would like that, so there’s nothing irrational in
this. Everything is just normal. Everybody is expecting we are
doing this in order to one day have a big payday, a big fight day,
and when that moment comes, you are like, ‘I wish I had what I
wanted.’ So I believe in it, and I see ‘Show the money,’ for me,
proof that, yes, he really wants, or if you show the money, he’s
going to fight.”
One of the most impressive aspects of Ngannou’s victory over Miocic
in their rematch was his ability to stuff his opponent’s lone
takedown attempt. In their first meeting in 2018, Miocic was able
to ground Ngannou repeatedly. Wrestling could be a big part of
Jones’ game plan should they meet, but Ngannou won’t allow himself
to become complacent.
“I cannot relate the fight with Stipe to take Jon Jones lightly
because I defended one takedown from Stipe,” Ngannou said. “Jon
Jones might have a different approach, a different balance,
different transitions. Those are the traps that I won’t let myself
go into. In this training camp, I’m gonna be working on my
wrestling. This was a good performance. i had a good win Saturday
night. But when I look at that fight, there are a ton of things in
that performance that can be fixed and get better.”
That said, Ngannou wants Jones to know that it will be an entirely
different world moving up to heavyweight than it was during his
reign at 205 pounds.
“My message to Jon would be to get ready and to be serious, to put
in serious work, because he’s going to have the biggest challenge
of his life,” Ngannou said. “I won’t be going there to play with
him like those guys have been doing. It’s going to feel different.
He can put whatever weight he wants on him, that doesn’t take
anything less from my strength or my power.”