Dana White wants Jon Jones to call if he wants Francis Ngannou: ‘We can make that fight tonight’

nolan king and ken hathaway

Sun, Mar 28, 2021, 7:25 AM·2 min read

LAS VEGAS – If Jon Jones calls, the UFC can get him the Francis Ngannou matchup. It’s just a matter of Jones (26-1 MMA, 20-1 UFC) reaching out, according to UFC president Dana White.

Moments after Ngannou (16-3 MMA, 11-2 UFC) claimed heavyweight gold with a violent second-round knockout of Stipe Miocic at UFC 260, Jones lobbied for a matchup against the newly crowned champion on Twitter.

At the UFC 260 post-fight news conference, White questioned Jones’ tweets, especially a one-liner that simply read, “Show me the money.”

“If I’m Jon Jones and I’m home watching this fight, I start moving to 185,” White told MMA Junkie. “… Sure. Listen, I could sit here all day and (ask) you, ‘What’s “Show me the money” mean?’ I tell you guys this all the time: You can say you want to fight somebody, but do you really want to?”

Moments later, Jones, who appeared to be watching and live-tweeting White’s news conference, pushed back at White’s prod that he should move down in weight, not up.

“Go to 185?” Jones wrote. “I didn’t gain all this weight for no reason.”

Later in his news conference, White was updated with Jones’ latest line, to which he laughed and told the former UFC light heavyweight champion to call the promotion’s executive vice president and chief business officer, Hunter Campbell.

“I like it,” White said. “That sounds serious then, Jon. Call Hunter right now. We can make that fight tonight, Jon. Call Hunter right now. … Derrick Lewis is the fight to make, but if Jon Jones really wants that fight … Listen, it’s one thing to go out and tweet and say you want it and ‘I put on the weight and did this and that.’ Do you want the fight? I promise you, we can call Derrick Lewis or one of these other heavyweights and they want the fight.

“If Jon Jones really wants the fight, Jon Jones knows he can get the fight. All he’s got to do is call and do it. (As) I said, it’s easy to say you want the fight, but if you really want the fight. Francis Ngannou is the heavyweight champion of the world right now. All he’s got to do is pick up the phone and call Hunter and we can get the deal done.”

UFC 260 took place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The main card streamed on ESPN+ pay-per-view after prelims on ESPN/ESPN+.