"Don't let the system dictate what you do" - Conversation between Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones face-to-face at PFL 5 revealed
Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones met face-to-face last night at the PFL 5 event, once again fuelling speculation about a potential fight.
Their super fight was put on an indefinite hiatus when it was announced that Ngannou had failed to agree on a new UFC contract back in January. He has since signed a historic deal with the PFL and Jones' captured the vacant UFC heavyweight title in his absence.
Watch their PFL face-off here:
Despite now being on opposite sides of MMA's promotional landscape, the face-off between Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones has only fueled more speculation and demand to see them battle it out inside the cage.
PFL president Ray Sefo faced the media following the event and dropped some details about the conversation between the two. According to Sefo, it was nothing but mutual respect.
"They had nothing but love and respect for each other," said Sefo. "They both said what they wanted to say, they both want to fight each other. I believe Francis also said 'Don't let the system dictate what you do'...I could sense a lot of respect there and they both want the fight."
Catch Sefo's comments from 4:24 onwards:
Eddie Hearn weighs in on potential boxing clash between Francis Ngannou and Tyson Fury
Francis Ngannou has never shone away from the fact his desire is to step into the world of boxing.
As part of his deal with PFL, 'The Predator' is allowed to seek out boxing opportunities before his fighting commitments with the promotion begin next year. One such name that Ngannou is desperate to face is Tyson Fury.
The pair teased their future bout last year when the Cameroonian fighter stepped into the ring with Fury. However, no fight has ever been close to being materialized.
Weighing in on the chaos was Matchroom Boxing president Eddie Hearn. According to Hearn, the constant back and forth is a "PR disaster" because they ultimately never agree on a fight. He said:
"It's just becoming a bit of a PR disaster. I don't think he really cares, but if you read the comments under these kind of posts [about Francis Ngannou vs. Tyson Fury], you can see people have had enough. I'm not even sure people are that interested in Tyson Fury vs. Ngannou. I think people want to just see Tyson Fury against Oleksandr Usyk. Or Tyson Fury against [Anthony Joshua] and that's it. So everybody else has their other fights planned, but he at the moment... I don't know honestly."
Catch Hearn's comments from 13:40 onwards: