Former UFC heavyweight champion and current free agent Francis Ngannou, and his would-be replacement Jon Jones — who goes up against Ciryl Gane this weekend at UFC 285 for the title Ngannou vacated when he left the promotion — have done their share of sparring in the media over the past few years.
Originally, much of the desire to see Jones move to heavyweight was to find out just how he would fare against “The Predator.” But when the UFC refused to cater to any of his demands, even to simply pay Ngannou lip service, he opted to take his services elsewhere.
Since then, Jones has taken a mostly respectful tone in regards to Ngannou, until a few days ago. In a post to social media (which, by Jones’ “tweet and delete” standards, has stayed up an awfully long time), the former light heavyweight said that “I found an interview of Francis talking about he’ll forever be the undisputed champion because no one beat him. Once I saw that, my tone changed. I thought I would tell how I really felt. He did make the right decision, he left before I came back. Smart move!”
Ngannou was apparently listening, and dished out a serving of humble pie by digging up some old Jones comments, where he says Daniel Cormier will never truly be light heavyweight champion since he never beat “Bones.”
“He was never the light heavyweight champion. He never beat me. This has been my era since 2011. I want to make that loud and clear,” Jones said at the time. “‘DC is no champ-champ. When we talk about an asterisk next to my name, there’s always going to be an asterisk next to the idea of him being champ-champ.”
“Jonny boy pick a side of the fence,” Ngannou added in his tweet quoting Jones’ words.
Jones himself will have a chance to claim gold in a second weight class at UFC 285 this Saturday, and while he won’t be a champ-champ, he does have the opportunity to join an exclusive club including the likes of Randy Couture and Georges St-Pierre, as fighters to win titles in two weight classes.
