Francis Ngannou has been staying “low key” while dealing with a few recent personal tragedies.

While staying out of the limelight, Ngannou has been training the entire time and hopes to fight before the end of the year or early 2026. Deontay Wilder is a potential option for him in the boxing ring, but on the MMA side, things aren’t so clear.

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Reflecting back on what could have been in a mega-fight against Jon Jones, Ngannou said that was a matchup thatt was dead in the water, especially when he made the move to PFL.

“(That fight) never got off the ground,” Ngannou said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “For sure, the UFC don’t want any co-promotion stuff. I think even Turki (Alalshikh) tried to make that fight happen.”

After beating Stipe Miocic at UFC 309, Jon Jones decided to retire and vacate the heavyweight title instead of unifying against then-interim champ Tom Aspinall. However, when the news of a potential card at the White House, Jones immediately showed interest and put his name back in the UFC’s anti-doping testing pool. Ngannou believes the whole thing was a negotiating play by Jones.

“Retirement doesn’t mean anything,” Ngannou said. “If he decides tomorrow he’s fighting, then that retirement is void. It means nothing, nobody would stop him if he keeps training. That doesn’t change anything. It might be his strategy, or he might just had enough, which is understandable. I wasn’t expecting it at that time or in this way. Having this announcing retirement in the middle of a conversation like this, it seems more like a negotiation tactic or something.”

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If the fight between Jones and Aspinall did come together, Ngannou believes “Bones” would have found a way to get the job done, as he has always managed to do throughout his entire career.

“Tom is young, he’s very explosive,” Ngannou said. “He’s young, hungry, but you know what they said: They said young monkey is fast, but old monkey knows the way. I think we can all agree that Jon knows the way for the victory.”

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Francis Ngannou recalls monkey adage to describe Jones vs. Aspinall