Francis Ngannou’s head coach hasn’t given up hope of one day pitting his fighter against Jon Jones.
Jones, the man who succeeded Francis Ngannou as the UFC’s heavyweight champion after he left the company to ink a big money deal with the PFL upon the expiration of his contract with the Las Vegas-based promotion, remain on the shelf after sustaining a pectoral injury last year in preparation for title defence against former champ Stipe Miocic.
The Jones-Miocic fight is reportedly set to take place this coming November in New York City — and despite unconfirmed rumours that Jones may opt to retire afterwards — Xtreme Couture coach Eric Nicksick, who has guided much of Ngannou’s combat sports career, says that they haven’t given up hope of being paired with Jones in what would be one of the most anticipated heavyweight fights in mixed martial arts history.
“How can you be in this position and not want to try to fight the best to ever do it, right?” Nicksick told MMA Junkie. “And again, I’ve said this time and time again, I think Jon is the best to ever do it, and if you’re a competitor, how do you not want to try to compete against arguably the best to ever do it?”
He added: “That is, yes — you want to gameplan, you want to compete, you want to try to put your best camp forward and your best fighter, and that’s obviously Francis. Yeah, that’s definitely something I would still love to have that opportunity to be able to do.”
There are obvious hurdles that would need to be cleared for any Ngannou-Jones bout to become a reality, namely the UFC’s general reluctance to cross-promote. That said, the influx of Saudi cash into combat sports, and in particular boxing, has led to renewed optimism that some of the hardest-to-arrange fights may have a pathway.
“I’m very optimistic when it comes to these things and I think money talks, you know, and you get the right people behind you,” Nicksick said. “Obviously we have a good relationship with Saudi, and I know Dana and UFC are working well with Saudi, so money talks. No disrespect to Dana, but he has a boss as well. So, somebody tells, ‘Hey man, this is a lot of money. We’re taking this. Set your ego aside.’
“I think Dana is in a position where he wants to make the best fights, and he’s not going to let his ego or any past history take advantage of that. If he feels that Jon Jones is the best to ever do it, then absolutely, put your best guy forward and give us the opportunity to see if we can dethrone that man.”
