UFC heavyweight contender Derrick Lewis reacted to the news that Jon Jones wants $8 to $10 million to fight Francis Ngannou.
Jones posted a series of tweets on Wednesday in which he said he told UFC executive Hunter Campbell that $10 million would be “way too low” for a fight against Ngannou, which on paper stands to be one of the biggest blockbuster super fights the promotion could ever put on. Both Jones and Ngannou are in the primes of their MMA careers right now and the fight between two of the promotion’s biggest stars sells itself. And yet, the UFC doesn’t seem willing to yet match Jones’ demands as far as the money goes.
If the promotion is ‘only’ offering $8 million to Jones to take the fight and he says no to it, well there’s another heavyweight in Lewis who would happily take the fight for that sort of money. Taking to his social media not long after Jones tweeted about his financial demands for the fight, Lewis said that he would be happy to fight Ngannou again for $8 million.
I’ll do it for 8 million shiiiittt @ufc
— Derrick Lewis (@Thebeast_ufc) March 31, 2021
I’ll do it for 8 million shiiiittt @ufc
Lewis and Ngannou met back at UFC 226 in July 2018, with Lewis winning a unanimous decision in what was a terrible fight that the fans despised. Both men were completely unwilling to throw down in that fight and it led to them basically staring at each other for 15 minutes. However, since that fight happened, Ngannou has won five straight fights by knockout and looks to be the guy who we once thought he would be when he first starting fighting in the UFC. As for Lewis, he is coming off of a huge KO win over Curtis Blyades that once again has inserted him into the top of the UFC heavyweight rankings.
Do you think the UFC will go with Jon Jones or Derrick Lewis against Francis Ngannou?