Jones vs Ngannou: “the biggest fight” in MMA
Former UFC fighter Chael Sonnen believes that the potential fight between the two contenders will attract the interest of most mixed martial arts fans.
Jose Aldo-Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey vs Holly Holm, and Conor McGregor-Khabib Nurmagomedov were just some of the most anticipated fights that took place in recent history, making MMA fans around the world happy with such big events.
Now it seems that these historic clashes could be followed by another one for the ages, the Jon Jones vs Francis Ngannou mega bout.
According to former two-time UFC middleweight title challenger Chael Sonnen, if Jones and Ngannou get to finally face each other in the octagon, it would be the most important fight that the UFC can make and one of the most notorious ever in MMA.
“Jon Jones vs. Francis, I think, is the biggest fight you can put on in our industry”, he said on his Youtube channel.
“It’s also going to be the first fight where two fighters have four years of inactivity between the two of them. It’s a very peculiar situation”, Sonnen added.
Jones’ last appearance was in 2019 when he defended his light heavyweight belt for the last time before vacating it.
Bones defeated Dominick Reyes in a controversial unanimous decision. After that fight, he has been bulking up for a move to heavyweight.
Meanwhile, Ngannou, the current heavyweight champion, last fought Ciryl Gane in January 2022. The Predator came out on top to complete his first title defense. However, he has been out of action since with a knee injury.
Ngannou: the right time to re-sign with the UFC
After defeating Gane, Ngannou had some issues regarding his UFC contract in terms of duration and money, but now the situation could favor him.
“I’m not going to sign a conventional UFC contract. It’s going to be something structured better for my protection, for my benefit, so. Where are we right now? Not somewhere exactly that I can tell”, he recently admitted.
Ngannou, who signed his last deal on Dec. 8, 2018, could be signing a new contract with the promotion, as UFC president Dana White admitted he was close to reaching a deal with the Cameroonian.
“I think that we’re heading in the right direction with Francis. There’s no doubt about it that this is where Francis should be and Francis should, you know, finish his legacy here at the UFC. And I think we’re pretty close to getting it done”, White said in December.
The Jones-Ngannou fight is not official yet, but it seems unlikely that the UFC will waste the opportunity of closing a deal that would be beneficial both for the company and fight fans.