In a roundabout way it would still be for money if it's a matter of staying relevant.

Miranda Maverick was fun to watch, thick thighs save lives .

Those legs are something else. She sounded very intelligent in the post fight interview as well. Really enjoyed that fight.

Oh god. Francis might have killed him with that last shot.

Stipe was scared as **** to throw anything vs Francis, i wonder if Jon Jones still wants the fight?

Jones tweeted “let’s play”. Imagine wanting any part of Francis. Mans a monster.

I dont think Jones wants any part of Ngannou. He probably will say the money isnt right and back out.

100% Jones will ask for $100 mill minimum knowing god damn well Dana ain't paying him that kind of money.

yeah feels like Ngannou shouldn't be anything lower than -200 vs Jones now that his TDD seems to be much improved, guys an elite athlete that would've like been NFL if he was born in the USA and probably trained TDD almost exclusively last 3 years.

**** Jones, he's a bum (relatively speaking). Probably going to get busted for drugs before they ever step in the octagon.

It's an Ngannou era, he's a much improved fighter and I don't see anyone getting close. Especially not Jones who has to go up in weight and hasn't fought much recently. Francis will win that fight every day of the week if it ever happens.

Hopefully the Ngannou era lasts longer than the Machida era did. The fight went exactly as expected but Ngannou is far from the perfect fighter. He still has stamina issues and we've never seen him go through a war to win. There are a decent # of HWs that could present problems for him.

Calling Jones a bum is laughable. He's the most accomplished MMA fighter of all time. He's younger than Ngannou but his accomplishments far exceed that of Ngannou. He's also an athletic freak in his own right. He's the same height as Ngannou but possesses a slight reach advantage.

That fight would be interesting for sure. Hopefully the move to HW provides Jones the necessary motivation to fight at his best. I scored him losing the fight to Reyes and he fought poorly against Santos as well. I don't see a kickboxing style match going well for Jones. Jones would need to force the clinch and make Ngannou work hard so that Jones can take over in the later rounds. On the flip side Ngannou pretty much just needs to do what he did vs Stipe: pace himself, manage the distance, and put him away.

Most accomplished MMA fighter of all time, how do you figure that?!

Let's be honest, Jones lost to Gustafsson in their first fight. His legacy is plagued by criminality, drugs and being suspended from the UFC.

Jon is naturally quite a lean guy and Francis is much more naturally a heavily built fighter. Jones won't be able to handle the power and Francis has improved in his striking + apparently in wrestling too. The only way I see Jon winning that fight is taking Francis down and lying on top of him for 5 rounds which I doubt he'd be able to keep him down.

Best fighter in the UFC for like a decade. Dispatched former champion after former champion with ease. Only time he was defeated was via DQ when he was dominating his opponent.

I scored that fight in favor of Jones. So did 13 out of 14 media outlets.

I don't disagree with you there.

Allistair Overeem was quite a naturally lean 205lb fighter until he wasn't. Being heavily built has it's advantages and it's disadvantages. Regardless, I don't believe a bulked up Jones will be at a strength disadvantage to Francis.


I suppose you can say that about anyone that faces Francis but Jones has never been knocked out nor has he ever been close to being knocked out. His strong chin and big head give him a better chance than most against Ngannou.

If he's able to put Francis against the cage and make him work Francis will wear out whether he is taken down or not. And of course, if he takes Ngannou down he can submit him there.

When is the last Jones fight against a good opponent that wasn't just a kickboxing match?

Ngannou is an elite athlete and laughed at Stipe's TD attempt, even reversing position and getting some big punches in. Grappling/cardio is Jones chance to win but he just hasn't done that very well for awhile besides maybe late vs DC when DC was worn down and the 2nd Gustaffson fight and Gus was done by then.

You have Ngannou at -200 or better vs Jones which would indicate that Jones is quite live. (I'm not sure what price I'd put it at right now, but would favor Ngannou since Jones has struggled with long fighters).

Ngannou stuffing Stipe's takedown attempt was impressive. It's what what he needed to do and what I expected him to do. Stipe has good wrestling, but his biggest strength is his boxing. He's only had 4 UFC fights where he had 2 or more takedowns. Compare that to Jones who has 12 UFC fights with 2 or more takedowns, several of which were against very strong wrestlers. He took down Daniel Cormier 3 times in 1 fight, ffs.

The path to Jones beating Ngannou is very clear, IMO. He needs to make Ngannou work and he needs to survive. Easier said than done but if he does those two things he probably wins. Jones had 9 takedown attempts vs Dominick Reyes. If he is able to get 9 attempts against Ngannou then most likely he'll win, regardless of how successful the attempts are.

Yeah, I think I might take Ngannou at -200 though (we'll see I guess, I had Ngannou vs Stipe, pretty sure I posted it ITT) but I honestly kinda feel like Lewis might have a better chance than Jones vs Ngannou as crazy as that sounds. Power vs power.

Maybe Jones has another gear but it has been a long time since we've seen it, especially post-USADA issues. Reyes/Santos not exactly tearing up 205 in his absence.

Jones is live, it is heavyweight but just seems like a horrible matchup. Also, while they are the same age, the amount of mileage on them is vastly different.

What is TDD?

Takedown defense.


Btw, I agree about Lewis. That's a very dangerous fight for Ngannou.

https://www.mmafighting.com/2021/3/2...king-let-me-go

Doesn't look like JBJ is fighting for the title anytime soon

I agree w/ Jones though, he is the most credentialed fighter in UFC history, it would be the biggest HW fight in UFC history by far, if Ngannou beats him it'll do way more for him than beating Derrick Lewis or Stipe again or whoever the hell else as HW is the weakest division in UFC by a mile.

Just pay the man his money.

Dana would rather make a thousand crappy fights before he pays a fighter what they're actually worth.

That was fast, I figured it would take more than 2 days. How much is jj asking? How many issues has JJ had in the last 3 years? Can he be counted on not to F up this fight?

Obviously fighting and beating JJ is better than not fighting him at all but I doubt it has much effect on his legacy if FN continues to win.

Yet another test for JBJ

last night i dreamed where i was playing poker and explaining to the table that my mma career was cut short because i had weak tdd and once that got exposed my opponents knew how to beat me every time

perchance i spent too much time online

This is just a game that is played. While Jones is an "A" level talent he's a "B" level draw. As long as that's the case, he'll never get paid what he feels he is worth. This social media banter helps create interest in the fight which may lead to Jones getting paid.

I don't view this as the biggest HW fight in UFC history, at least not yet. I'm not sure how big of a star Ngannou is at this point, but regardless I don't think the thirst for this fight is super high yet. It may take Ngannou winning another fight and Jon Jones sitting on the sidelines for a bit longer bitching about how he is being screwed over before the masses decide they just have to see this fight.

Brock Lesnar had 4 fights do over a million PPV buys (3 of the 4 had weak co-mains). By contrast Jones's biggest fights were both vs Cormier and they did 800k and 860k ppv buys respectively.

I don't think Ngannou/Jones is a B level draw given timing/novelty/pedigree of the 2 fighters. Ngannou/Jones will draw 2-3-4x more than Ngannou vs Random heavyweigh X.

There aren't many intriguing fights for Ngannou at HW.

I do agree though that the thirst for this fight will get higher with another Ngannou KO of Lewis. Especially since after Lewis there is really nowhere else to go.