Dana White claims that the reason Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones never fought was Ngannou.
On Tuesday, Jones teased retirement after he defends his UFC heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic later this year, repeatedly dismissing interim champion Tom Aspinall. This has become a common refrain for Jones, who appears dead set on the Miocic fight despite some public backlash and on Tuesday evening, following the latest episode of Contender Series, White jumped in to defend Jones.
“I have zero animosity towards Francis,” White said. “Francis was out of my world a long time ago. [Sean Shelby] and Mick [Maynard] are another story. It’s a long story. [Shelby] did everything he could in his power to make Jon Jones vs. Francis. The fight did not happen and let me tell you what, it wasn’t because of Jon Jones.
“So Jon is a very unique individual to deal with. Jon Jones will fight everybody. Jon Jones was absolutely — he wanted Francis! You saw what happened with Ciryl Gane. He will tell you like he told us that he would do the same thing to Francis Ngannou. He wanted that fight so bad.
“And for anybody who thinks — I know the whole internet, ‘Oh Jon Jones!’ that I’m up Jon Jones’s ass, these are f*cking facts. 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*ckers that think Jon Jones isn’t the greatest of all-time.
“Dislike him, whatever your beef is with Jon Jones, knock yourself out. There’s no way in hell that Jon Jones doesn’t want to fight Aspinall. That I guarantee you.”
Ngannou’s split from the UFC was fairly acrimonious as the former heavyweight champion completed his contract then opted not to re-sign with the promotion, citing irreconcilable differences and a lack of respect from the promotion. The perceived animosity from the UFC only increased when, ahead of UFC 305, the promotion released a video of Israel Adesanya talking about the “Three Kings” of Africa but conspicuously removed mention of Ngannou. But White insists that neither he nor any of the top brass had anything to do with that, at least not to his knowledge.
“I don’t know about this,” White said. “And it was something that we produced? Are you sure that we produced this? Like Embedded or something?
“... We’ll find out what happened... Because if that’s true, and that was done and that was something that we produced, then somebody in the company made that decision. That definitely — listen, you know me, if I said we did it, I’d say, ‘Yeah, f*ck him and this is why we did it.’ I know nothing about it, nobody ever asked me about it, and this is the first we’re hearing about it or I would tell you.”
What White will tell you is that Jones is going to fight Aspinall after he concludes his business with Miocic later this year. Despite Jones’s recent comments, White still believes that’s going to happen, even dismissing Jones suggesting that he may be looking for “a deal I can’t refuse.”
“Jon Jones is doing Jon Jones right now,” White said. “That’s what he does. There is nobody that we’ve ever dealt with, when I tell you is not afraid to fight anybody. It’s Jon Jones... I believe Jon Jones-Aspinall happens if he beats Stipe...”
“We’ll do everything we can to make that fight happen... What fights don’t we make? Other than the Francis thing, what fights don’t we make? You can’t make people fight and we couldn’t make Francis fight. But every other fight we’ve made. We’ve dealt with guys like Brock Lesnar. Think of the biggest stars that have ever been in the sport. We’ve always made the fights.”
