Jon Jones was present for the MVP MMA card and said he’d need to get out of his UFC contract to face Francis Ngannou.
Jones was a guest at the analysts’ desk, present to react to Ngannou’s performance against Phillips Lins. Ngannou ended up finishing Lins in just under five minutes.
Following the fight, Ariel Helwani asked Ngannou about potential next fights. Jake Paul was brought up as a possible opponent, as was Jones, but all parties seemed to recognize the difficulty of such a fight happening while Jones is locked under a UFC contract.
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Jon Jones Looking To Get Out Of UFC Contract For Francis Ngannou Matchup
Jones was then asked to follow up on his thoughts, and he appeared to hint that he might be looking to get out of his contract.
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“I’ve got to try to focus on getting out of my UFC contract,” Jones said. “That’s going to be the difficult part if this fight [with Francis Ngannou] is going to happen. I don’t think [UFC CEO and President] Dana [White] is interested in doing business with Francis, so doing it with MVP would probably be the only way to make it happen, and if we can get out of my contract that would be great.”
Jones has not fought since defeating Stipe Miocic at UFC 309. Jones and Tom Aspinall’s negotiations for a heavyweight title fight ended with Jones’ retirement. That retirement only lasted two weeks, when Jones requested to be put on the UFC White House card.
When Jones was not placed on the card, he asked for his release.
Jones and Ngannou have had previous negotiations with the UFC for a fight, but the fight fell through more than once before Ngannou left the UFC in 2023.
The win over Lins was Ngannou’s first fight since his sole PFL bout — a first-round knockout of Renan Ferreira in October 2024.