When Jon Jones was battling Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 on November 16th, you could bet your money that former UFC and current PFL heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou was closely watching. After ‘Bones’ won in emphatic fashion, ‘The Predator’ showered a few words of praise on ‘Bones’ big win, as the former cemented his place as a legitimate heavyweight with a win over arguably the greatest UFC heavyweight of all time. However, Ngannou’s team, especially his head coach, didn’t see anything special about Jones’ UFC 309 triumph.

Xtreme Couture’s head coach, Eric Nicksick, just like Francis Ngannou, gave due credit to Jon Jones for his UFC 309 win. He thought the undisputed champion did really well against Stipe Miocic, but Jones’ performance was nothing out of the ordinary according to him. His reasoning was the fact that the UFC’s resident firefighter Stipe Miocic looked like he was past his prime, which didn’t really prove much with regards to Jones’ performance, despite his knockout win.

“I thought he looked good. Jon looked good enough to get the win… I am not trying to throw shade at him. He did everything he was supposed to do but I thought Stipe looked old man. I thought he looked old and slow,”, Francis Ngannou’s coach stated on the ‘Ballin & Brawlin’ podcast. “You know, I just didn’t feel like he was present. That was something, I think, everybody worried about was how was he going to look with that long layoff, what was he doing in the meantime… That was the question at hand.”

Well, Jon Jones doesn’t seem to have much left to prove in the UFC, except the fight against Tom Aspinall, which many fans badly want to see. However, the other biggest of heavyweight MMA fights, according to discussion outside of the UFC realm, has been the potential bout between Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou. While on paper, that fight is a pipe dream given Dana White’s disdain for Francis Ngannou, Eric Nicksick seems to have a different opinion from the UFC head honcho, despite both fighters being contracted to different promotions.

Eric Nicksick feels Jon Jones vs Francis Ngannou may become a reality

Dana White clearly mentioned that he doesn’t want to cross-promote in any way, shape, or form. He even lashed out at the PFL brass when they suggested a crossover MMA event with ‘Bones’ and ‘The Predator’ as the headliners. So why is Ngannou’s coach so high on this fight taking shape in the future? Well, the simple answer is money. Money talks and Erik Nicksick believes that with the right money, and people in place, this fight could definitely become a reality.

“There’s enough money out there, there’s enough guys that can make this happen, you know? Although Dana is the CEO, he does have a boss man. There’s people above him, there’s enough money to move that needle to make this fight happen, you know? Maybe, somewhere down the line, we can make this fight happen.”, Ngannou’s coach stated in the ‘Ballin and Brawlin’ podcast.

It seems like a bit of a stretch for that fight to happen at this point, especially since the UFC is trying to make the Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall fight a reality. Right now, Dana White has the herculean task of getting Jon Jones willing to fight the English interim heavyweight champion, with ‘Bones’ putting forth the condition of being compensated adequately. By adequately, ‘Bones’ means he wants “f*** you money”. If making a fight within the UFC is proving to be this tedious, then one can only imagine what making a cross over fight between rival promotions would entail.