Jon Jones attacking Ariel Helwani on Twitter

[Captain Herb]

Francis was injured after Gane in Jan 2022 and no longer even had a contract with the UFC now that he'd fought it out. That's why Jones couldn't fight Ngannou while Ngannou was out and why they were instead initially looking at Stipe.

This all happened not even a year ago. Give it a few years at least before trying to re-write history.

His contract didn't expire until a year later but in any case, by mid 2022 it looked pretty likely Ngannou would leave when his contract expired and that's when Jones started to position himself in the division (after years of postponing any potential HW fight--which coincidentally enough happened to be the same years when Ngannou had the belt)

 

[Deleted member 267581]

Jon's been riding in a Bentley for a long ass time now tho.

Yeah but to jones who believes he’s the greatest, to see someone like Conor come along and make 100 mill and then make 30 million a fight he’s pissed. Jones probably max made 3-5 mill a fight. He wants the type of money that is generational and he held out for years because of it.

I guarantee you he’s kicking air watching Francis last Saturday. Francis is about to get paid on his next boxing match. Francis is going to get at least 2 boxing fights. He’ll get wilder or Joshua and a rematch with fury for some massive paydays

 

[Crash-override]

Jones seems to slowly be unravelling. He’s out for a year and returning for a fight no one cares about against a 47 year old Stipe. Meanwhile Francis Ngannou is a multi-sport savage receiving universal acclaim for his performance. Ngannou just made more money than Jones will in his life without the UFC. Meanwhile Dana has been disparaging Jon for years yet he’s stuck with a company that publicly insults him. Ngannou > Jon

God, I cannot stand ariel

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

You think Francis is the greatest HW? He has 1 defense that he barely won and lost to Derrick Lewis.

I don't think that's what he said though, just that it doesn't cement Jon over Francis

 

[Captain Herb]

Not all intent needs to be said. It can be inferred through context.

He sure talked about Stipe a lot though...

 

[Motivated BJ Penn]

You guys are being purposefully daft at this point. Francis is outgunned on the feet against Fury and outgunned in the grappling against Jon. The difference is Fury has to strike with Francis and can't do anything about avoiding that, thereby leading to the much greater likelihood Francis actually lands his power shot.

There's nothing Fury can do to avoid actually striking with Ngannou like Jon can when Jon has the option to just not strike with Francis at all by taking him down. Francis' nuclear option disappears on the ground. It doesn't disappear in boxing.

You talk like Ngannou is Gane and will be taken down on the first attempt. There is zero chance Jones is taking down a fresh Ngannou with a full wrestling training camp, maybe in the championship rounds when hes gassed. But he WILL have to strike with Francis for a few rounds at least.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

Jon's literally a higher GOAT than Fury, yet here you are still upplaying him but not Jon.

That's nice, but it's also a different sport, and Ubisoft has nothing to do with that

 

[Deleted member 267581]

You talk like Ngannou is Gane and will be taken down on the first attempt. There is zero chance Jones is taking down a fresh Ngannou with a full wrestling training camp, maybe in the championship rounds when hes gassed. But he WILL have to strike with Francis for a few rounds at least.

Francis is not an easy fight for anyone. Jones knows that

 

[markg171]

You talk like Ngannou is Gane and will be taken down on the first attempt. There is zero chance Jones is taking down a fresh Ngannou with a full wrestling training camp, maybe in the championship rounds when hes gassed. But he WILL have to strike with Francis for a few rounds at least.

Gane took down and held down Ngannou.

 

[Cooliox]

Insecure narcissists can't stand when other people get some rub, best examples I can think of are Jones and Conor. They'll try and bring down anyone they deem a threat to try and prop themselves up.

Truth

It doesn't occur to narcissists that there are other people on the planet.

If there is news praising Ngannou, Jones literally thinks that this is a shot at him.

Not all narcissists are pathological liars though. Not all of them are this blatantly emotional either.

Jones for some reason is more insecure than your average narcissist. It's quite ironic that the World Champion isn't good enough for himself in his own head.

 

[Motivated BJ Penn]

Gane took down and held down Ngannou.

On the last round, a gassed Ngannou who wasnt expecting it. You just proved my point.

 

[markg171]

On the last round, a gassed Ngannou who wasnt expecting it. You just proved my point.

Sir Gane has a 21% TD accuracy. Getting taken down by him is very embarassing, no matter when it happens.

The only thing more embarassing is then getting swept by Ngannou of all people.

Meanwhile getting taken down by Jon happens to everybody and I don't believe anybody's yet swept him.

You said it yourself that against Jones Ngannou needs to spend an entire camp dedicated to wrestling. And even then said you think that only will work for a few rounds before that still fails Ngannou. How exactly are you not admitting that Jon's grappling is a massive, massive problem?

 

[locust rising]

Fuck ariel

 

[RoyJonesJr]

Wasnt Jones complaining about the UFC after the whole USADA thing? They didn't care about him, yadda yadda

Then by the second bust UFC literally had to change a card location last minute, cite some shady sponsored paper, just for Jones to fight

Jones is a coke head and needs to relax

 

[Motivated BJ Penn]

Sir Gane has a 21% TD accuracy. Getting taken down by him is very embarassing, no matter when it happens.

The only thing more embarassing is then getting swept by Ngannou of all people.

Meanwhile getting taken down by Jon happens to everybody and I don't believe anybody's yet swept him.

You said it yourself that against Jones Ngannou needs to spend an entire camp dedicated to wrestling. And even then said you think that only will work for a few rounds before that still fails Ngannou. How exactly are you not admitting that Jon's grappling is a massive, massive problem?

You are reaching for those grapes, I said Jones takedowns MIGHT only work on later rounds since you implied he could take him down at will to avoid his striking. No, Jones will be forced to deal with Francis striking and will have to fight perfectly to avoid getting flatlined.

Thats a way easier fight for Francis than boxing the HW champion of the world...

 

[dog y]

Gotta love Picto losing his tiny mind while Francis is on top of the world and Ariel clowns him.
Simply lovely.

 

[MileHigher]

That was probably low hanging fruit, but I couldn’t resist.

 

[CieloLuce]

Jones can sit back comfortably making peanuts, while Ngannou is making bank and can retire with two more fights.

It is okay, Jones is the big fish in a small pond. Wouldn't risk anything for the big prize.

 

[Pechan]

lol Ariel with the receipts, some of these fighters don't seem to know how the internet works.

 

[markg171]

You are reaching for those grapes, I said Jones takedowns MIGHT only work on later rounds since you implied he could take him down at will to avoid his striking. No, Jones will be forced to deal with Francis striking and will have to fight perfectly to avoid getting flatlined.

Thats a way easier fight for Francis than boxing the HW champion of the world...

Jon has never even been dropped or hurt, let alone KO'd. He's a great striker on top of that, even if his power's nothing special. He's one of the most dynamic and creative the sport's ever seen. The grappling is massively in his favour against everybody he fights, and the threat of the TD alone has always been a problem in and of itself for strikers.

Fury by contrast has been dropped a few times, and realistically was KO'd by Wilder in the 1st fight. He was supposedly #1 or #2 HW boxer in the world, who though relies on his size to wear down opponents not used to it in the clinch. He can only punch.

Fury is stylistically the way easier fight. We all thought he still needed his nuclear option to actually pull it off as the skill was supposed to be way more in Fury's favour, but Ngannou was taking the fight where his opponent has no option but to stand in front of him and risk that. Ngannou was fighting in his own strength.

Against Jones he meanwhile needs to stop Jones from taking him out of his strength and bypassing it entirely. Fury will be standing in front of him, Jon might instead be literally on top of him.