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One of Jon Jones' former opponents recently theorized why he took a lengthy three-year hiatus prior to making his heavyweight debut. He was confident with his theory and believed it had to do with his feelings toward a potential clash against Francis Ngannou.
'Bones' had hinted at a move to heavyweight for years and finally committed to doing so after relinquishing his light heavyweight championship. At the time, Ngannou was the reigning heavyweight champion and arguably the most feared competitor on the roster due to his knockout power.
Fans clamored for an Ngannou vs. Jones bout, but it wasn't meant to be as 'The Predator' departed the UFC and joined PFL in 2023.
Jones' former opponent, Chael Sonnen, recently uploaded a video to his YouTube channel, where he discussed the super fight that never materialized. Sonnen mentioned that Jones had his opportunity and delayed a move to heavyweight in order to gain muscle mass because of both the respect and fear he had for Ngannou:
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"[Jones] came after Francis Ngannou. Period. Jon Jones respected and feared Francis Ngannou. Period. Because of that respect and because of that fear, [he] laid a world championship down, walked away for three years, from a pay check, from everything, to go in the weight room to gain some size so that he would have the confidence to bring down the big man. That's what happened." [3:59]
Check out the full video featuring Chael Sonnen's comments below:
Chael Sonnen dismisses claims that Jon Jones ducked Francis Ngannou
In addition to theorizing why he believes Jon Jones took a three-year hiatus, Chael Sonnen dismissed the claims of 'Bones' ducking Francis Ngannou.
During the aforementioned video, Sonnen mentioned that he doesn't believe Jones ducked Ngannou and noted that there were other factors that led to the highly anticipated clash falling through:
"Nobody did anything wrong but to make believe that Jon [Jones] didn't do everything he could do to fight [Ngannou], make believe that Jon wanted to do anything else other than fight him, that's not reality. That's not true." [6:27]
Check out Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou's faceoff at a PFL event below:
