The heavyweight champion cleared the way for the veteran – Newspaper Kommersant No. 7 (7452) of 17.01.

In the UFC, the main promotion in mixed martial arts (MMA), an emergency has occurred. Heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou could not agree on a new contract with the structure and was stripped of his title. The story with Ngannou has already opened the way to him for Jon Jones, one of the brightest MMA celebrities, who returned to the sport after a long break, and in the near future it may open it to one of the high-ranking Russian fighters.

The UFC has announced that it has ended its relationship with heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, stripping him of his 2021 title. Ngannou’s refusal to sign a new contract with the promotion led to the state of emergency, negotiations on which lasted about two years. Commenting on the decision of the structure, its president, Dana White, said that by offering the Cameroonian her version of the contract, she intended to make him “the highest paid heavyweight in history.” White made it clear that he was extremely indignant at Ngannou’s position.

ESPN there is no doubt that after being fired from the UFC, Francis Ngannou, who is in great demand among the public, will quickly find a new job – either in another promotion, or in another sport altogether. For example, managers from professional boxing said that a Cameroonian with a powerful punch could try himself in this form. Moreover, various sources have claimed that there is interest in Ngannou’s potential fights even against such prominent boxers as the British Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

Meanwhile, the story of Francis Ngannou has already paved the way for the championship title for another MMA celebrity. The UFC promptly scheduled a fight for the vacant title.

It will take place on March 4 as part of the UFC 285 tournament. In this fight, the experienced Frenchman Cyril Gan, who previously held the title of the so-called interim UFC champion, and the American Jon Jones will meet. Jones is a special figure for MMA, who has the status of an almost full-fledged legend.

In 2011, at the age of 23, he won the UFC championship belt for the first time. There were no younger than those who managed to get it before Jones. After that, he was unbeaten in a dozen and a half fights in a row and earned a bunch of different honorary prizes. For a long time, independent experts put Jon Jones on the top line of the ranking of the best fighters, regardless of the weight category. In fact, this assessment was questioned only at the end of the previous decade, after the champion title in the middleweight (70 kg) submitted Russian Khabib Nurmagomedov.

But there are two nuances. The first is that Jon Jones actually spent his entire career in light heavyweight (up to 93 kg), and he began to express thoughts about changing the category only at a veteran age. The second is that Jones had a very long downtime.

His last performance – against compatriot Dominic Reyes – dates back to February 2000. And that fight Jones won with great difficulty.

It is likely that the departure of Francis Ngannou brings Russian fighters closer to the most prestigious title. In the top ten of the official classification of the strongest UFC heavyweights, there are two domestic athletes at once: Alexander Volkov is on the eighth line, and Sergey Pavlovich, who is one of the main MMA punchers, after a series of successful and spectacular matches, is already on the third. In addition to Cyril Gan, only the American Stipe Miocic, who is already 40 years old, is ahead of him. Most likely, Pavlovich can expect to receive candidate status soon.

Alexey Dospekhov