WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones have engaged in an online war of words in recent weeks.
This week, things got a bit more real as Fury is claiming that the UFC has offered him a ‘hybrid fight’ with Jon Jones.
Fury has been linked with Jones since claiming that he would win a fight with the American.
“I’ve been in talks with Francis Ngannou for a hybrid fight,” Fury said on a Twitter Spaces stream on Friday. “There’s talks of me and Jon Jones doing a hybrid fight, as we talk right now. I received an offer from the UFC yesterday.
“So, you never know what’s going to happen. The future’s bright for sure, and there’s a lot of options out there.
“It seems, at the moment, I’m struggling to get an actual boxing opponent. Mauricio Sulaiman, the president of the WBC (World Boxing Council), did an interview on a podcast recently, and he said: ‘Tyson’s a victim of his own success. He’s that good, people don’t want to fight him. They’d rather fight someone else.’
“That’s what I’m experiencing right now. I think I’ve called out everybody in the top 15 in the heavyweight division in the last six months, and I’m still without an opponent, as we speak today.”
UFC president Dana White seems on board as he stated he would be willing to make a match between Jones and the WBC heavyweight champion.
“If Tyson Fury really wants to fight Jon Jones in the UFC, I will make it happen,” White said. “Here’s my thing right now to Tyson Fury: Tyson, if you’re serious, let me know. Tyson and I have a good relationship. I like Tyson Fury.”
Fury wrote any fight would have to “be under boxing rules” because he doesn’t “roll round on the floor! I stand up and punch” with an emoji of a boxing glove.
The back and forth began when UFC analyst Joe Rogan said “no one thinks Tyson Fury could beat Jon Jones in a fight.” Fury caught wind of Rogan’s comments and went off.
“I heard him say that Jon Jones could f–k me up if we were in the room together. I don’t think so. Not a man born from a mother could f–k me up, in a room, on our own. Whatever happens in that room, I’d be walking out. Not a f–king problem.”
Jones responded by challenging Fury to a fight:
Fury has done some mixed martial arts training with Nick Diaz, but not enough to the point where anybody thinks he could handle Jones in the Octagon.
Fury is unbeaten with a 33-0-1 record in 34 career boxing matches. Fury last fought in December, retaining the WBC heavyweight title with a TKO win against Derek Chisora.
Meanwhile, Jones last fought in March, returning to the UFC after a three-year absence to move up a weight class and fight for the vacant heavyweight belt. The 35-year-old submitted Ciryl Gane in the first round.
