Jake Paul has been wrong about plenty over the years. On Monday he was right, and the most interesting man in MMA seems to agree with him.
The opening came Monday afternoon, when undefeated boxing world champion Shakur Stevenson announced he’d been released from Zuffa Boxing. The 29-year-old signed with Dana White’s boxing promotion earlier this year, never made a single appearance for it, and said he requested his release because Zuffa couldn’t get him the fights he wanted. He asked, and he got out. Paul saw the precedent and pounced on X:
“Can Jon Jones request a release like Shakur Stevenson so we can go ahead and do this Francis Ngannou vs Jon Jones fight? They already said they are never working with Francis. So let Jon fly and we can give the fans what they want. Please and thank you.”
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Then Jones reposted it, which Championship Rounds flagged Monday night. A 39-year-old who recently said he’s unlikely to ever return to combat sports does not casually amplify a Ngannou pitch. That repost told us exactly where his head is.
A Fight the UFC Won’t Make and Won’t Let Anyone Else Make
Here’s the setup Paul is poking at. Jones hasn’t fought since UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024, when he defended the heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic. Since then, according to MMA Mania, he pushed for an Alex Pereira fight and pushed for a spot on the White House card. Both got denied. Bloody Elbow reported that after he was left off the UFC Freedom 250 event, he announced his retirement, kicked off a running feud with White, and has since asked for his official release. He still has fights left on his deal, so he can’t compete anywhere else unless the UFC lets him go.
So the promotion won’t book him and won’t free him. That’s a hostage situation with a fancy logo on the ransom note. And the one fight fans have begged for since Ngannou was still wearing UFC gold is impossible inside the Octagon by the UFC’s own choice, because Paul’s line that the company is never working with Francis lines up with how White has treated Ngannou since he left. MMA Mania put it bluntly: White still acts like Ngannou is a monster for walking.
The UFC gets nothing out of this arrangement except the satisfaction of saying no. It’s the ex who won’t answer your texts but still watches every one of your Instagram stories. You don’t want him, fine. Let him go be somebody else’s problem.
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Jones Has to Get Loud
A repost is a wink. Jones needs a press release.
If he has formally asked out, as Bloody Elbow reported, then he should do what Stevenson did and put it in public with his name on it, with specifics. Stevenson told the world Zuffa couldn’t get him his fights, and the door opened. Jones has a cleaner case than Stevenson ever did, because the fight he wants is with a man his promotion has blacklisted.
And Jones needs this more than he’ll admit. His case as the consensus GOAT is airtight at 205, but the heavyweight chapter of his career has always had a Ngannou-sized asterisk next to it. Meanwhile Ngannou returned to MMA this year at MVP MMA 1 and knocked out Philipe Lins in the first round, and now he’s sitting around with almost nobody left to fight. The opponent is ready. The promoter is begging. Every month Jones spends saying he’s probably done while hitting repost on Ngannou tweets, he lets people argue that the promotional mess is a convenient place to hide. My read is that he’s letting the UFC’s stubbornness do his talking, and from the cheap seats that looks almost identical to ducking.
The smartest counterargument came from MMA Mania, and weirdly from Ngannou himself: the UFC will never just let Jones walk, a Jake Paul tweet probably makes them grip tighter, and the realistic path is a lawyer and a two-year wait. Ngannou’s own reply to Paul was a cold shower. He wrote that freedom isn’t free and that a fighter has to take it for himself.
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Think about who’s saying that, though. That’s an argument for Jones to act today. Ngannou is the guy who spent years getting jerked around before a sunset clause let him leave after five years, and he’s telling Jones nobody hands you the keys. Fine. Then waiting quietly is the worst possible move, because two years from now Jones is 41 and the fight starts drifting toward a nostalgia act. Stevenson just proved Zuffa will let a star go when he makes enough noise. Jones should make more noise than Stevenson did, hire the lawyer anyway, and run both tracks at once.
Paul did his part, with a “please and thank you” no less. Ngannou already told Jones how this works. Now Bones has to take the door himself.
