Joe Rogan is lamenting about the loss of the Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou bout amid retirement and contractual dynamics with other promotions. On JRE MMA Show episode 167 while speaking with Cory Sandhagen, Joe Rogan was getting into what contest he truly yearned to see inside of the cage as Rogan said,
“The real fight would have been Jon Jones versus Francis [Ngannou]. That's the real fight. If I like clearly, I'm not responsible for making decisions because I would have made a lot of different decisions. I would have been like, ‘Francis, let's talk, let's work this out.’ That guy's a star. Francis is the scariest heavyweight of all time. That guy, as the heavyweight champion, is so marketable. He puts people into orbit. He flatlined Stipe, he flatlined Alistair, he flatlines people. He's terrifying."
Rogan continued, "That's the heavyweight champion, and for that guy to walk away from the belt and then almost beat Tyson Fury and then get knocked out by Anthony Joshua and then to come back and destroy that dude in PFL—that's the guy. That's the fight. It's a shame when that happens in the sport, dude. It's the worst. I hate it. I see it happen all the time, and I can't help but think a lot of it is like, hopefully, it's just maybe money, business stuff, but I really think that some of it is ego.”
Joe Rogan on the lost Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou bout
Joe Rogan has discussed this lost heavyweight dream fight for years now and this was evidenced by him commenting on it during a Joe Rogan Experience episode circa February 2023. Around this period, Rogan expressed a desire to see Ngannou get his blockbuster boxing bout that he desired [which ended up being against Tyson Fury] and to come back to the octagon to face the winner of Jon Jones vs. Ciryl Gane which was then an upcoming bout for the vacant UFC heavyweight title.
Even beyond the prickly relationship between Ngannou and UFC figurehead Dana White, the heavy handed heavyweight is contractually bound to the PFL for his MMA fighting career and is loyal to PFL per one of Ngannou's coaches. Around the time of
