Henry Cejudo isn’t willing to give up the idea of a Jon Jones vs. Tyson Fury fight in the UFC just yet.
Fury and got into a media spat last week after Joe Rogan said Jones would body Fury in a real fight. Not a boxing bout, which “The Gypsy King” would win, but a cage fight or a street fight. That didn’t sit well with Fury, who called Rogan a “bald little p—y.”
He didn’t keep that same energy when UFC president Dana White offered to set up a fight between Fury and Jones in the UFC. He declared “‘I don’t roll around on the floor,” and that was that. But not if former UFC double champion and Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo has his way. “Triple C” threw down the gauntlet in a new YouTube video, challenging Tyson Fury to be great by accepting the challenge.
“You know who has a chance to change the mixed martial arts industry forever? It’s Tyson Fury,” Cejudo said. “The UFC made $387 million in profits last year. Do they have the money to pay a Tyson Fury? One hundred percent. Will Tyson Fury fight in the octagon against the greatest of all time in Jon Jones, and will he lose? One hundred percent. But it’s the chance that he has to live that lineage of legacy with the chips he found.”
“It’s not about being undefeated, that’s not what makes you great. Being the greatest of all time just means, in my eyes, is who took the most risks … I think about a guy like Floyd Mayweather. People call him the greatest of all time, the best of his generation. Floyd Mayweather doesn’t have the accolades or the weightclasses that a guy like Manny Pacquiao has done or has won. Eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao. You wanna give me 50-0 or you wanna give me an eight division champ like Manny Pacquiao, I would pick Manny any day of the week.
“The person that takes more chances will be remembered more than the guy that never really took risks, or really fought people in their actual prime,” Cejudo continued. “Tyson Fury, you have an offer from the most powerful mixed martial arts promoter in Dana White. Will you get paid? One hundred percent. Will you get paid more than you have been in boxing? One hundred percent. Jon Jones is up for grabs. Jon Jones will fight you. Jon Jones will fight you any day of the damn week.
“My question is: is Tyson Fury all talk, or is he just out there for media attention. Because the only person that I can think about that he’s really beat, and this is 15 years ago, and he wasn’t in his prime, was [Wladimir] Klitschko.”
As for how the fight would go?
“Oh, it’s a massacre,” Henry admitted. “Tyson Fury gets taken down, and I know Jones would want to hurt him right away. Put some elbows on his forehead and then eventually either ground and pound him or tap him out. It’s not a competition. But if Tyson Fury does have that lucky punch, will he catch that lucky punch? And I think that’s the difference.
“Jones, when you have elbows, knees, punches, and you can wrestle, and submissions, he’s complete. The most complete guys. Unless its a street fight with a gun or some crime of God type s—. If you think you are, there are promotions out there to prove and see if you really are the best in the world, and it’s called the UFC.”
We can’t imagine Tyson Fury is going to step into the cage against Jon Jones. As Cejudo pointed out, it would be a massacre. It wouldn’t even be very entertaining. Fury would probably last less time than Ciryl Gane did, and that fight was already an anti-climactic nothingburger. There’d just be no heat in this foregone conclusion.
There’s also the issue of money. The reason UFC fighters keep boxing is because boxing allows fighters to get a bigger cut of the profits coming out of events. The UFC didn’t make $387 million in profits last year by doing 50/50 splits with their athletes. They certainly aren’t in a place right now where they’re willing to splash anyone with boxing-level cash. Henry’s suggestion Fury would make more against Jones than he would in boxing? Flat out wrong.
Tyson Fury is currently making over $25 million per fight. He’s on the verge of signing a ridiculous deal that could near $100 million to box Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia. Fighting Jon Jones in the UFC doesn’t qualify as a risk or a challenge, it’s just stupid.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
