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Jon Jones walking away from fight with Francis Ngannou, UFC after 'unbelievable' negotiations

Jon Jones appears to have given up hope for a future bout with Francis Ngannou.

Jones, in a series of tweets Thursday, said he was in negotiations with the UFC about a future fight. Less than an hour later, things took a different turn.

The UFC wasn’t willing to pay him more to jump up to heavyweight for the fight against Ngannou, Jones said. So, he’s walking away.

At one point it even sounded like he was done fighting for good, though he later walked those comments back.

It’s unclear what specifically went down in those negotiations.

Jones walked his comments back several hours later. He also confirmed that a bout with Ngannou was officially off the table.

Jones and Ngannou have been feuding on Twitter this week about a potential fight. Jones, the light heavyweight champion, has talked about moving to heavyweight for years now. He even hinted at doing so for a fight against Stipe Miocic last year, but that never came to fruition.

Based on their conversations, both he and Ngannou appeared all in.

Ngannou is fresh off a win against Jairzinho Rozenstruik at UFC 249 earlier this month, which he secured 20 seconds into the bout with an early KO. It marked his fourth straight victory.

Jones also had a win under his belt this year, having defended his light heavyweight title by beating Dominick Reyes via unanimous decision at UFC 247 in February. The 32-year-old hasn’t lost in more than a decade, with the only smudge on his resume being a no-contest after testing positive for turinabol against Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 in 2017.

A fight between the two would be entertaining, to say the least.

Apparently, negotiations have gone south. It may be quite some time before that fight is locked down, if it happens at all.

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