Francis Ngannou praises nemesis Jon Jones for respectful gesture towards his mother at PFL vs. Bellator event
Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones are in a competitive feud, but the former showed respect to the latter for how respectful he was to his mom.
Both combatants were in attendance at the massive PFL vs. Bellator event in Saudi Arabia over the weekend. Ngannou shared a clip from that event of Jones interacting with Ngannou's mother, and 'Bones' was shaking her hand, repeatedly bowing to her, and embracing her with a friendly hug.
Sharing the footage of the interaction via his X account, Ngannou said:
"Fighting aside it was very respectable of you to greet my mom like this @JonnyBones . Much respect 🙏🏿"
Check out the footage of Jones respecting Francis Ngannou's mother below:
Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones' rivalry
It's not a particularly disrespectful rivalry, with Francis Ngannou even going as far as to call Jon Jones the greatest fighter ever in prior interviews.
During a dormant period where Jones made his last successful light heavyweight title defense to navigate a move up to heavyweight, Ngannou ascended to the top of that UFC weight category.
After leaving a trail of former heavyweight champions halted in his wake, Ngannou cemented himself as UFC champion with a KO of Stipe Miocic in a rematch and ended up exiting the UFC after his first title defense thereafter.
His unanimous decision win over Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 saw 'The Predator' retain gold, but he wanted to test himself in free agency and also get opportunities in the sweet science.
After Ngannou left the company, Jones made his return at UFC 285, where he finished the aforementioned Gane in March of last year. This return after a few years away from the cage came via first-round submission to claim the title Francis Ngannou had vacated.
Now Jones is the UFC heavyweight champion, while Ngannou continues his boxing endeavors while concurrently navigating his PFL debut.
The Cameroon native readies to fight generational great Anthony Joshua on March 8 under Queensberry Rules and now finally has his first PFL opponent lined up. After Renan Ferreira stopped Ryan Bader in 21 seconds, the PFL champion emphatically punched his ticket to be Ngannou's debut opponent inside the PFL Smart Cage.
The 37-year-old has faced off with Jones before at a prior PFL event. Their interaction at this recent Professional Fighters League card on Feb. 24 was far more subdued comparatively.