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LAS VEGAS – They had yet to take Stipe Miocic off the canvas at Apex on Saturday when the Jon Jones tweet storm began.
The former light heavyweight champion was tweeting about Francis Ngannou’s second-round knockout of the man widely regarded as the greatest heavyweight in UFC history in the main event of UFC 260.
And that made sense, given that Jones dropped out of the 205-pound division with the expressed intention of running for the heavyweight title.
Jones is such a great fighter that even when he seemed bored over the past few years, he still dominated his opposition and won fights. A shift to heavyweight made sense to him, as it offered new challenges and potentially many more, more lucrative paydays.
A Ngannou-Jones heavyweight title fight would be about as big as that of the UFC. It would be a massive fight that would go beyond the MMA crowd and reach out to the general public.
It’s also the type of fighting the UFC has always been quick to fight over the years. If you’ve followed the sport over the two decades that Dana White was part of the promotion property, you know there are very few mega-fights that he hasn’t been able to put on.
But judging by White’s comments at Saturday’s post-fight press conference and Jones’s tweets, one would suspect this will be next on that short list of fights that don’t happen.
I’m not buying it, even though both sides made mistakes following Ngannou’s victory.
Jones’ only real mistake was his first tweet after BetMGM -135 favorite Ngannou finished Miocic. He wrote, “Show me the money.”
Of course, he deserves to be paid generously for this fight. It’s ridiculous that fans are tearing him apart for wanting to get paid. Would be you do you want to fight Ngannou inexpensively? Of course not.
That first tweet was a mistake, because instead of instantly starting the drumbeat for Ngannou-Jones, Jones shifted focus from a fight that would be a career-defining opportunity to a business dispute.
If her first tweet had been something like, “Congratulations, Francis. See you in a few months ”, the whole story would have changed. It would have got people excited to see if he could kill the dragon and repeat his unprecedented light heavyweight success.
But tweeting about money has attracted a segment of fans who clearly don’t understand the sport that changes Jones about fear.
Jones is not afraid of Ngannou, just as he was not afraid of Daniel Cormier or Shogun Rua or Rampage Jackson or Alexander Gustafsson or any of the other dangerous men he fought in his heavyweight race. light.
It’s ridiculous to suggest he’s scared, but Jones himself has opened the door to it.
One of the oldest tips in the book when a fighter doesn’t want to fight is to say he does and then ask for a lot more money than he thinks he is. But this fight would be so big, that’s no problem.
But White didn’t help matters with his first comments at the post-fight press conference. White said, “If I’m Jon Jones and I see this, I go to 185,” to the laughter of the gathered media.
White, of everyone, knows that Jones is not afraid of anyone. And his commentary can be interpreted in more than one way. He could have tried to build up the notion of Ngannou as a boogeyman, the guy all other fighters are afraid to face.
It could also be interpreted as a shot at Jones, especially since the two have had a thorny relationship over the years. White is also well aware that Jones is sensitive and doesn’t appreciate such comments, so it wasn’t just a matter of pricking him with the knife, but pushing and twisting him.
Jones made a lot of good points during his tweet storm, but he’s come in the sights of social media fanboys who like to throw grenades at celebrities on the condition of anonymity.
A Twitter user noted that Ngannou would likely be knocked out Jones if he logged in. Jones responded by writing, “Brother, I stepped away from the much faster punchers. And I have a pretty solid chin. Let’s not forget the combat IQ, the range, the speed, the distance. I’m not going to stay there like Stipe did.
That’s exactly the plot in this fight: Can Jones do to Ngannou what he did to Cormier and so many others and almost completely negate Ngannou’s attack while using his range to pull him apart?
There is an argument to be made on both sides, which is why this fight is so compelling. Jones acknowledged that in a tweet on Sunday when he wrote, in part, “… this is an opportunity of a lifetime for everyone involved.”
He is right.
Imagine the UFC would rather have a Ngannou-Jones fight that matches their dreaded new champion against arguably the greatest MMA fighter who ever lived, or would they want a rematch of one of the worst fights they’ve ever seen? he organized in his modern history by pairing Ngannou with Derrick Lewis in his first defense?
Jones’ tweets and White’s adjustments are all part of the negotiation process.
It’s a big fight. Both sides know it.
It will be done.
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