Sean O'Malley, who I have a lot of respect for because he always puts on a good show voiced his opinion well out of his weight class when asked about who he would like to see next in the heavyweight big show.
Look, I'm a fan of the sport but I don't understand the politics that go on inside of it but at the moment, Francis Ngannou is the champion of the heavyweight division but so is Ciryl Gane. I look at the UFC site on a regular basis and I have not seen a setup like this before even though there have been interim champions before.
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Sean O'Malley is not alone when he says that he would much rather see a Miocic versus Jones (of the Jon Jones variety) than see Ngannou vs Gane. I think that I would rather see any of these guys fight anyone as long as Gane isn't involved because even though he was slightly less boring in his recent victory against Derrick Lewis, he was still boring. He's a boring fighter.... full stop. It works for him so here is very little reason to expect that he will ever change that but in the meantime I think most people are kind of "meh" when it comes to seeing Gane's name on a card.
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There are a couple of reasons why I would like to see this fight happen and one really big reason why it probably wont happen.
For on thing, Both Jones and Miocic are getting up there in years as far as your shelf-life is concerned in MMA in a general sense. Jones can proabably stretch out another 5 or maybe even 10 years but there is a very good chance that we could see his level of dominance wane and along with it, the demand to see him fight. That's reason number one... age.
Reason number two is that Miocic probably has a bit of rage in him about his loss of the title that happened in a pretty one-sided affair and what better person to take that rage out on than one of the biggest mouths in the sport? I like Jon Jones, but at the end of the day the dude has a mouth on him and it isn't the entertaining kind like Conor or Chael Sonnen or even Colby Covington. When Jones talks smack it is just like "seriously? That's the most wit you would come up with?"
The main reason I would like to see this matchup is because Jones does not deserve a title shot in his very first fight at heavyweight. Hell, I would argue that he doesn't deserve a fight against anyone in the top 5 but we all know that money drives this sport and Jones is going to be a MASSIVE draw if he is on the card, no matter who he is facing so Dana White is going to want to make it someone big.
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Now here is the reason why this matchup of Jones vs Miocic probably isn't going to happen. Despite them putting on their nice guy pants recently, Dana White and Jon Jones do not like each other and Jones is playing hardball on how much money he needs to be paid in order to turn up. I don't remember what that number was but it is something along the lines of more than 10 million just to turn up. If Miocic or whoever else starts hearing that Jones is getting that sort of money, guess what is going to happen? They are going to want it as well.
The wont get it but they'll certainly expect to be paid more than their normal fee.
Dana White has indicated that Jones isn't an issue for at least the rest of 2021 and that's that. At the end of the day, despite his massive and deserved ego, Jon Jones needs the UFC.... the UFC does not need Jon Jones. So at some point, Jones is going to have to play nicer in order to make this happen.
In the meantime though, I agree with Sean O'Malley. I have no desire to see a Gane fight, no matter who he is against.