Dana White claims that the rationale Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones by no means fought was Ngannou.
On Tuesday, Jones teased retirement after he defends his UFC heavyweight title towards Stipe Miocic later this 12 months, repeatedly dismissing interim champion Tom Aspinall. This has grow to be a standard chorus for Jones, who seems useless set on the Miocic struggle regardless of some public backlash and on Tuesday night, following the newest episode of Contender Collection, White jumped in to defend Jones.
“I’ve zero animosity in the direction of Francis,” White stated. “Francis was out of my world a very long time in the past. [Sean Shelby] and Mick [Maynard] are one other story. It’s a protracted story. [Shelby] did the whole lot he might in his energy to make Jon Jones vs. Francis. The struggle didn’t occur and let me inform you what, it wasn’t due to Jon Jones.
“So Jon is a really distinctive particular person to cope with. Jon Jones will struggle all people. Jon Jones was completely — he wished Francis! You noticed what occurred with Ciryl Gane. He’ll inform you like he informed us that he would do the identical factor to Francis Ngannou. He wished that struggle so dangerous.
“And for anyone who thinks — I do know the entire web, ‘Oh Jon Jones!’ that I’m up Jon Jones’s ass, these are f*cking information. Information. And since all people has been such douchebags about this, I’m popping out with a pleasant little punch within the face for all you f*ckers that suppose Jon Jones isn’t the best of all-time.
“Dislike him, no matter your beef is with Jon Jones, knock your self out. There’s no means in hell that Jon Jones doesn’t need to struggle Aspinall. That I assure you.”
Ngannou’s cut up from the UFC was pretty acrimonious as the previous heavyweight champion accomplished his contract then opted to not re-sign with the promotion, citing irreconcilable variations and an absence of respect from the promotion. The perceived animosity from the UFC solely elevated when, forward of UFC 305, the promotion launched a video of Israel Adesanya speaking concerning the “Three Kings” of Africa however conspicuously eliminated point out of Ngannou. However White insists that neither he nor any of the highest brass had something to do with that, a minimum of to not his data.
“I don’t learn about this,” White stated. “And it was one thing that we produced? Are you certain that we produced this? Like Embedded or one thing?
“… We’ll discover out what occurred… As a result of if that’s true, and that was finished and that was one thing that we produced, then any individual within the firm made that call. That positively — hear, you recognize me, if I stated we did it, I’d say, ‘Yeah, f*ck him and this is the reason we did it.’ I do know nothing about it, no person ever requested me about it, and that is the primary we’re listening to about it or I’d inform you.”
What White will inform you is that Jones goes to struggle Aspinall after he concludes his enterprise with Miocic later this 12 months. Regardless of Jones’s current feedback, White nonetheless believes that’s going to occur, even dismissing Jones suggesting that he could also be in search of “a deal I can’t refuse.”
“Jon Jones is doing Jon Jones proper now,” White stated. “That’s what he does. There’s no person that we’ve ever handled, once I inform you is just not afraid to struggle anyone. It’s Jon Jones… I imagine Jon Jones-Aspinall occurs if he beats Stipe…”
“We’ll do the whole lot we are able to to make that struggle occur… What fights don’t we make? Apart from the Francis factor, what fights don’t we make? You possibly can’t make individuals struggle and we couldn’t make Francis struggle. However each different struggle we’ve made. We’ve handled guys like Brock Lesnar. Consider the largest stars which have ever been within the sport. We’ve at all times made the fights.”
