Francis Ngannou: ‘It Makes Sense’ That Jon Jones Wants More Money for HW Title Fight

Francis Ngannou is not one of those who thinks Jon Jones is avoiding a matchup with the newly-crowned heavyweight champion.

Shortly after Ngannou knocked out Stipe Miocic in the second round to claim the belt at UFC 260, Jones tweeted ‘Show me the money’ in reference to a potential showdown with “The Predator.” That prompted UFC president Dana White to imply that the former light heavyweight king didn’t really want a bout against the powerful Ngannou. From there, Jones expressed his displeasure with White’s comments in a series of tweets, some of which have been deleted.

Ngannou, however, seems to understand Jones’ position and believes it isn’t out of line for “Bones” to request a bigger payday for what could conceivably rank as one of the biggest fights in UFC history.

“I believe that Jon Jones wants this fight,” Ngannou told TMZ Sports “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, and mine. So I think he wants that thing. He wants to put something like this on his legacy, on his resume. So I truly believe he wants this fight to happen.

“As far as the [numbers], yeah, he’s asking for money. He said, ‘Show me the money,’ but I think it makes sense. I think for a mega-fight everyone would like to have mega-pay, such as mine. I want that fight. I would like to have good pay, and every other fighter out there would like that, so there’s nothing irrational in this. Everything is just normal. Everybody is expecting we are doing this in order to one day have a big payday, a big fight day, and when that moment comes, you are like, ‘I wish I had what I wanted.’ So I believe in it, and I see ‘Show the money,’ for me, proof that, yes, he really wants, or if you show the money, he’s going to fight.”

One of the most impressive aspects of Ngannou’s victory over Miocic in their rematch was his ability to stuff his opponent’s lone takedown attempt. In their first meeting in 2018, Miocic was able to ground Ngannou repeatedly. Wrestling could be a big part of Jones’ game plan should they meet, but Ngannou won’t allow himself to become complacent.

“I cannot relate the fight with Stipe to take Jon Jones lightly because I defended one takedown from Stipe,” Ngannou said. “Jon Jones might have a different approach, a different balance, different transitions. Those are the traps that I won’t let myself go into. In this training camp, I’m gonna be working on my wrestling. This was a good performance. i had a good win Saturday night. But when I look at that fight, there are a ton of things in that performance that can be fixed and get better.”

That said, Ngannou wants Jones to know that it will be an entirely different world moving up to heavyweight than it was during his reign at 205 pounds.

“My message to Jon would be to get ready and to be serious, to put in serious work, because he’s going to have the biggest challenge of his life,” Ngannou said. “I won’t be going there to play with him like those guys have been doing. It’s going to feel different. He can put whatever weight he wants on him, that doesn’t take anything less from my strength or my power.”