Francis Ngannou was surprised by the quick finish by Jon Jones over Ciryl Gane.
Saturday night was a big night in the UFC heavyweight division. Longtime light heavyweight champion Jon Jones made his debut at heavyweight when he defeated Ciryl Gane by first-round submission. Many people may have had Jones winning the bout coming in but not many thought it would end so quickly. One man who was surprised by the nature of the finish was the former heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou.
Francis Ngannou thinks Jon Jones looked rushed in the first round against Ciryl Gane
“I think this fight should kind of be longer. I was surprised the way that the fight ended. And I think, even Ciryl’s reaction, he was surprised as well, because he wasn’t even defending. He wasn’t thinking that a submission can come from where he was at,” he said. “So that was quite a great performance from Jon, not very surprising, because I knew that if I could out-wrestle Ciryl, Jon will be another story. But what I do notice is that Jon was rushing, Jon didn’t want to give him space because he knew that, I think he was afraid of maybe getting exhausted at some point. So he was chasing him from the first minute to grab him.”
Some believed that the biggest fight in the UFC heavyweight division is still Jones versus Ngannou, however, UFC President Dana White has recently come out and said that Ngannou would never be welcomed back to the UFC. Ngannou is still interested in the fight but he’s being realistic about his chances.
“This fight, I would have liked to have but unfortunately, we are not there. That fight didn’t happen and probably will never happen. Now he is on a very long contract with the UFC,” he said. “So that’s not happening anymore.”
Jones has insinuated that he will be making at least one title defense. After three years away from the sport it was unclear if he would be close to retiring or not. Now it seems that he will be taking on Stipe Miocic during International Fight Week this July.
