Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones may not be fighting anytime soon, but that’s apparently not going to stop them from trading barbs on social media. Jones went on a particularly long and weird rant on Twitter talking about hard work and America.
Ngannou responded to some of the tweets, basically just laughing off Jones’ threat to “break” him. The heavyweight champion brought up how Jones has had a string of decisions and close fights as of late.
To counter, Jones brought up his five submissions, which was a UFC light heavyweight record for a while.
Jones’ resume is undeniably hall-of-fame worthy, but Ngannou did nitpick and jab at some facts about the former light heavyweight champion’s recent finishing rates.
The last submission win from Jones is all the way back in 2012 against Vitor Belfort. With his lack of finishes lately, that submission record Jones brought up has since been broken by Glover Teixeira. Ovince Saint Preux, Paul Craig, and Misha Cirkunov are also now tied with Jones.
With the Cormier win in 2017 being overturned, Jones has just one official finish in eight years. Since that last TKO in 2018 against Alexander Gustafsson, Jones’ three fights have all been decisions.
That of course doesn’t diminish the quality of opposition and his stellar 26-1 (1 NC) record, but it was factual and a good way to push some of Jones’ buttons while trying to sell a fight. Although none of this would matter if negotiations don’t progress with the UFC, and they continue to refuse to open their checkbooks enough to book this fight.
