Francis Ngannou ‘not surprised’ by Jon Jones ‘great performance’, admits they’re never going to fight
It could have been Francis Ngannou facing Jon Jones in the UFC 285 main event this past Saturday, but instead it was the last guy that he beat, Ciryl Gane.
Jones made it look easy. He submitted Gane in two minutes and picked up the heavyweight championship. He’s now a two-division champion and back atop his place in the pound-for-pound rankings.
Ngannou watched the fight and filmed his reactions. Afterward, he gave his analysis of Jones and admitting that and he Jones will never get to fight due to Jones’ UFC contract.
“I knew that if Jones shows up in a good space mentally, not like his last two fights, he’s going to prevail in this fight but I didn’t see this fight go so short,” Ngannou said on his YouTube Channel.
“I think this fight could have been longer. I was surprised though. I was surprised by the way the fight ended. I think seeing even Ciryl’s reaction, he was surprised as well because he wasn’t even defending. He wasn’t thinking that a submission can come from the way he was at. That was quite a great performance from Jones.”
It was a great win for Jones, who was coming off three years away from competition. But Ngannou wasn’t surprised by it.
“Not very surprising because I knew that if I could outwrestle Ciryl, Jones would be another story. You’ll have a hot knife if Jones could lay his hands on him,” said Ngannou.
“Fun fight. The fight that I would have liked to have, but unfortunately we’re not there. That fight didn’t happen and probably will never happen now that he’s on a very long contract with the UFC, so that’s not happening anymore.”