After a swift victory at UFC 285, Jon Jones proved once again why he is a polished champion, now holding the UFC heavyweight title.
He expressed gratitude for his accomplishment in beating Ciryl Gane, thanked his team, and compared himself to a lion with the heart to overcome adversity.
Then the other Jones – one perhaps best captured by his “hot mic” exchange in 2015 with former rival Daniel Cormier – made a brief appearance. Responding to a tweet from former UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou, Jones threw all sense of decorum out the window with a profane insult.
“Francis is a big ol’ p****,” Jones said.
The back of the room at T-Mobile Arena howled with glee as Jones shook his head. He briefly tuned out at the next reporter’s question.
“I love that quote,” Jones said with a laugh. “I love it. All that muscle, with a big ass p****. Excuse me. I’m so sorry.”
Moments after Jones submitted Gane inside three minutes in Saturday’s pay-per-view headliner, Ngannou reacted snarkily to the new champ’s win.
Good job Jonny Boy 👍
Sincerely,
The heavyweight king— Francis Ngannou (@francis_ngannou) March 5, 2023
Ngannou held the belt until less than two months earlier, when the UFC announced Jones would fight for it against Gane. He was stripped of the belt when he chose not to re-sign with the promotion after becoming a free agent, and despite his openness to returning later under better contractual conditions, UFC President Dana White said before UFC 285 that he would never fight in the octagon again.
White reiterated his position at the UFC 285 press conference, throwing cold water on the idea of a fight between the former and current champions, whose potential megafight led to a contract dispute between Jones and the UFC that resulted in “Bones” relinquishing the light heavyweight title in 2020.
Jones spent more than two years on the sidelines, bulking up for a move to the heavyweight division. As Ngannou’s negotiations with the UFC soured, Jones left his longtime managers and enlisted a new one that resulted in a deal he and the promotion said made him the highest-paid heavyweight on the roster.
Back in the UFC fold, Jones echoed White’s claim that Ngannou departed the promotion because he didn’t want to face the toughest challenges in the octagon. When his post-fight interview came, Jones used it not to dunk on Ngannou but call for a fight with ex-champ Stipe Miocic, whom he was scheduled to face at UFC 218 at heavyweight before a UFC 214 drug positive led to Jones being stripped of the light heavyweight title for the third time in his career.
Prior to UFC 285, Miocic said he had been enlisted to face Jones at UFC 285 but said the promotion went a different direction. Asked whether Miocic would be Jones’ first defense at heavyweight, White was noncommittal about booking the fight.
