Francis Ngannou can see Jon Jones’ side of things when it comes to financial negotiations regarding a possible fight.
Francis Ngannou is the newly crowned heavyweight champion and is looking forward to his next bout already. Even before Ngannou beat Stipe Miocic, Jon Jones was the next probable challenger, now that Ngannou is king, Jones seems to be having trouble setting up a dollar amount to his liking. Because of this trouble with negotiations, Jones has been shying away from the fight, to what many are saying is because he is scared. Ngannou believes that Jones does want the fight and is not running away from it.
“I believe that Jon Jones wants this fight,” Ngannou told TMZ. “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, [same] in mine. So he wants that thing. He wants to put something like this on his legacy, on his resume. I truly believe he wants this fight to happen.”
The possible bout between these two men could be the most anticipated fight of the year, and maybe of all time on the heavyweight division. Jones looking to be compensated for a fight of this caliber is his right. Jones has had an enormous amount of success in the UFC over a long career. He is currently sitting atop the pound-for-pound rankings and is one of the biggest draws. Ngannou knows this and has sided with Jones and his fight.
“As far as [negotiation], yeah, he’s asking for money, he said ‘show me the money’ but I think it makes sense,” Ngannou said. “I think for a mega-fight everyone would like to have mega pay, [same] as mine. I want that fight. I would like to have good pay and every other fighter out there would like that. There’s nothing irrational in this. Everything is normal. Everybody is expecting that we are doing this in order to one day have a big payday. A big fight day. When it comes that moment, you are like ‘I wish I had what I wanted.’ So I believe in it and I see ‘show the money’ for me, proof to me he really wants it or if you show the money, he’s going to fight.”
Jones is looking for the kind of money that boxers receive. The fact of the matter might be that MMA fighters are not quite up to that pay scale at this time. It is no secret that Conor McGregor is the highest-paid fighter in the UFC, but he rose his stock but going out and fighting Floyd Mayweather in boxing. When he came back to the UFC he has worth more to them. Maybe Jones needs to do something similar. Ngannou, in the meantime, could be looking at a rematch with Derrick Lewis for his first title defense.
Do you think the UFC will pay Jones enough for his to fight Francis Ngannou?
