Rigged boxing judging aside, Francis once again proved the nay sayers (Dana) wrong and beat the undisputed heavyweight champion in his first professional boxing match.
Now with that being said, we as MMA fans will once again be deprived of watching the TRUE baddest man on the planet, and that fight is JONES vs FRANCIS.
In my opinion, this is thanks to Dana White.
This man’s ego combined with his and WME’s greed has now cost the fans, Randy vs Fedor, and now Jones vs Francis.
I would argue that the UFC has now become a roadblock to progress in MMA, as a Jones/Ngannou match has the MMA implications of like an Ali/Frazier match did for boxing. It is unlikely the fans will get this now.
Definitely see your point, and Im not a Jones fan, but there is no question that he is the greatest LHW of all time, and a fight between him and Francis would be gigantic for the sport.
Jones vs Ngannou is a huge fight for sure and Jones is the greatest LHW of all time but he made all his opponents make 205 lbs and the baddest man on the planet does not do that.
Mighty Mouse had all his opponents making 126 lbs or 125 lbs once he moved down from BW because he was well aware he was not the baddest man on the planet.
Jones would have competed at HW the past fifteen years if he thought himself the baddest man on the planet.
You just can’t sit at LHW and not take the fights with prime or near prime JDS, Cain, Stipe, Carwin, Werdum, Overeem, Ngannou, Hunt, Pavlovich etc… and get called the baddest man on the planet by beating one HW kickboxer in fifteen years in the UFC.
Jones has avoided the baddest men on the planet for fifteen years in the UFC and he has always walked around just about the same size as Fedor who actually faced the HW’s of his day.
Francis went 25 minutes with Gane and squeaked out a [dreadfully boring] decision win. JBJ finished the same man in 2 minutes and 3 seconds and the only strike he absorbed was a groin shot. He also ran Francis out of the sport/promotion
JBJ is the baddest man on the planet and it’s not even close
Six of the the fighters Jones beat in the UFC also competed in the UFC MW division at times. Jones has been like Tito, very careful not to be the smaller man in the cage.
Fedor never found any fucks to give, gave up hundreds upon hundreds of lbs in his career to his opponents and he is no bigger than Jones in terms of overall size.
Not according to JBJ and Dana. They said jones was ready and they were working on the fight and Francis wasn’t accepting it. He knew he’d lose and ruin his shot at this boxing match
If he thought he could win, he would have fought Jones. It’s that simple
Don’t forget it only took Jones three years to take that fight vs the green HW kickboxer who had only been in the UFC four years and never fought a wrestler.
Compare that shit to Crocop who fought Aleks, Barnett, Randleman, Coleman and Magomedov just in the single year leading up to his fight with prime Fedor.
It is sad. For me Ngannou vs Jones, the Pav/Aspinall winner, a Gane rematch, maybe even Jailton are all much more interesting than any of this crossover boxing shit.
All this banter is what I’m talking about. DANA and the UFC were the major roadblocks to putting together Jones vs Ngannou, the blame ultimately is not on the fighters.
UFC makes billions but give the fighters crumbs, and tell the fans to fuck off, here’s an interim title or another BMF belt…
