Pay Jon Jones Whatever He Wants in Heavyweight Title Fight
After this past weekend’s UFC Heavyweight title changing hands with Francis Ngannou knocking out Stipe Miocic, the conversation quickly turned to Jon Jones’ move up to heavyweight.
Jon Jones, in case you didn’t know, is the most dominant UFC fighter in the company’s history. He has cleared out the light heavyweight division numerous times. His only loss is a fluke loss early in his career to Matt Hamill, which UFC president Dana White has personally tried to get overturned.
You know it’s a big fight when a big-time champion like Stipe Miocic loses his belt and in the same night, fans, commentators, and reporters are asking and talking about Jon Jones’ move to the heavyweight division and if he’s next for Francis.
Jones has been training long and hard for his move to heavyweight. He vacated his light heavyweight title and vowed to put on muscle mass to go to heavyweight and become king there and reign the way he has reigned over the light heavyweight division for 10 years.
Not only was it the UFC/MMA community that was talking about the next fight, but Jon Jones himself also weighed in on what was next for him. He of course said he wanted the fight, but he said he wants to get paid for it. Understandable. Not only has Jones probably been underpaid over the years for what he has brought to the UFC, but he also is taking a huge risk. He is putting his undefeated record on the line and moving up to a weight class in which he’s never competed in. He’s never been at this size physically, he doesn’t know exactly how his body will react once it comes to fight time.
On top of all that, he would be going up against the Mike Tyson of MMA. Francis Ngannou is a scary dude. He has an amazing story that will probably be told in movies and documentaries one day, but he also looked well-rounded against Miocic. The flaw Ngannou had in his first fight with Miocic was that he couldn’t defend a takedown to save his life. Once Stipe defended the onslaught of punches, it was over for Ngannou.
The second time around? Not so much. Francis Ngannou had clearly been working on his wrestling, defending Stipe’s takedown beautifully, and then actually trying a takedown of his own once he fended off Stipe’s attempt.
This creates many more problems for anyone who tries to take down Francis Ngannou. Literally and figuratively. He has the type of power to break through the strongest of chins, and if he can fight off his opponent’s takedowns, he is nearly unstoppable.
That’s what makes Jon Jones so intriguing, though. For one, he’s fought some of the very best fighters of all time in the toughest division at the time and defeated a majority of them with minimal effort. Some of them even when coming off of heavy benders in his partying days.
Jones is building weight the correct way, doing it slowly over time so he doesn’t sacrifice his skills in other departments.
The matchup is intriguing, even more intriguing than Jones vs Miocic would’ve been if Stipe would’ve defeated Ngannou on Saturday night. Ngannou is perceived to be the scariest man alive. He still has one of the scariest knockouts when he landed a beautiful uppercut to Alistair Overeem at UFC 218.
We’ve never seen Jon Jones taken out, and Ngannou is the biggest threat Jones has ever faced. It’s a clash of two mammoths in the sport, something that is clearly getting people very excited. That is why Dana White and the UFC must pay Jon Jones whatever he wants, as long as it’s not unreasonable.
The narrative that Jon Jones is scared of Francis Ngannou and that’s why he’s demanding more money is laughable. Why would Jones have given up his light heavyweight title and gained all this weight if he was just going to run from Ngannou? After all, Jones would have assumed he’d face Ngannou at some point or another since this move to heavyweight is not just a one-time deal.
Jones just wants what is due to him. The UFC is starting to have events will full crowds again starting in April, which means whenever they have Jones face Ngannou, it’ll be in a sold-out arena, so the UFC doesn’t have to worry about losing money on the lack of crowd like they have for the past year. This pay-per-view would do well over a million buys, probably closing 1.5 million buys if promoted correctly.
One could argue that Stipe Miocic deserves an immediate rematch, but given his Instagram post, it sounds like he’s going to be taking some time off, so there truly is nobody else that Ngannou should face other than Jon Jones.
Jones wants it. Francis wants it. The fans want it. Dana White, make it happen.
