Derrick Lewis would fight Francis Ngannou for $8 million
The future is still uncertain when it comes to who and when Francis Ngannou will defend his UFC heavyweight title against, but a familiar foe has put a price tag on the possible matchup, should he get the call.
Fellow heavyweight Derrick Lewis (25-7) was in Houston, Texas for UFC 262 over the weekend and talked about the potential rematch.
“It’s not real official yet,” Lewis said in response to a reporter asking if the Ngannou-Lewis fight had officially been booked. “I don’t know, it seems like he wants to keep going back and forth with Jones and he’s really just trying to ignore me. That’s what it seems like, but hopefully it’s official.”
The two big men competed against one another at UFC 226 in July 2018, in what many mixed martial arts fans have called “one of the most boring heavyweight fights of all time.”
Lewis, no stranger to honesty, did not disagree.
“It’s have to go [different], it can’t be any worse than it was,” Lewis said of a potential rematch against Ngannou. “It would have to be, even if it’s one punch extra than the last fight, it’s gotta be better and I believe it is. We’ve both improved in a lot of areas than we were in the last one we had.
UFC President Dana White recently claimed that Jones was asking for $30 million to fight Ngannou, a statement that Jones says carries no merit.
“I appreciate what Jones has been doing, so thank you,” Lewis explained. “I could take the minimum, $8 million, I’m not [greedy], not at all.
“$8 million, sh*t, I can fight tonight for $8 million. I told my manager my price and told him don’t call me if it isn’t the price that I told you.”
Who do you think Ngannou makes his first title defense against? Will it be Derrick Lewis or Jon Jones?
