Ngannou reveals truth about Jones fight ahead of PFL debut

Former UFC heavyweight Francis Ngannou revealed on Thursday why a clash against reigning champion Jon Jones never happened, claiming the American was unprepared to fight him.

The Cameroonian fighter, who left the UFC in 2022 over a contract dispute, was widely seen as having avoided a bout against two-division champ Jones.

UFC CEO Dana White even declared recently that “you can’t make people fight and we couldn’t make Francis fight him”.

However, as Ngannou prepares to make his PFL debut in October, another side to the story has been revealed.

“As far as I’m concerned, it was Jon Jones that didn’t want to fight me — according to them,” Ngannou said in a press conference to promote his fight against Renan Ferreira, where he is a -322.58 favourite at bookmaker Bovada.

“So many times we sit down on the meeting, they said ‘oh it can’t happen, Jon Jones doesn’t want to fight anymore’.

“He’s living in Albuquerque, he’s living his small life, he has a lot of money in his bank account.”

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Ngannou is adamant that White has been distorting the truth of how the fight negotiations panned out.

“I think that’s the new narrative since he needs to say something either way,” said Ngannou, referring to White’s statement that he was not willing to fight.

“I think the guy who controls the narrative can say whatever he wants.

“But that’s just the narrative.

“I was the one requesting the Jon Jones fight but I didn’t want to get trapped into some deal and get to something that I didn’t want.

“I wanted things to be straight and square.

“So yes, I wanted to fight Jon Jones but in good conditions. Not just to fight to be paid out.”

Ngannou will fight Ferreira on October 19 at the PFL’s ‘Battle of the Giants’ in Riyadh, where he lost to boxing star Anthony Joshua earlier this year.

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