Francis Ngannou will be the next man to challenge Stipe Miocic for the UFC Heavyweight title.
Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Jon Jones was relinquishing the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship and moving up to the 235-pound division. Following Miocic’s win over Daniel Cormier at UFC 252, the 31-year-old strongly teased being the next challenger for Miocic; however, Dana White has put an end to the rumors and confirms that Ngannou will get the title shot next:
“[Jon Jones is] the longtime light heavyweight champion. In my opinion, he’s the greatest of all time, and if he wants to come back and take a shot at the heavyweight championship, I wouldn’t have a problem with that,” White told ESPN on Tuesday “But he can’t just jump in front of Ngannou right now.”
Originally, Jones and Ngannou were rumored to clash in a super heavyweight bout, but the match-up was ultimately scrapped due to the former UFC Light Heavyweight title holder being unhappy with UFC’s financial offer for the bout.
While Miocic does own a victory over Ngannou at UFC 220, the 33-year-old quickly rebounded by getting four consecutive knockout wins over Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
In terms of Jones, the former light heavyweight champ will most likely fight one of the top five contenders in the heavyweight division; however, the UFC President didn’t go into details on what the future holds for him going forward:
“[Ngannou vs. Miocic is] definitely the fight that’s going to happen at heavyweight now,” White said. “Francis Ngannou has earned that title shot. Then we’ll see what happens. We have the top 4-5 [heavyweights] laid out for fights coming up in the fall. So we’ll see when Jon Jones’ timing is to come back and who makes sense for him.”