Tyson Fury offered UFC contract fight as Dana White names first opponent

Tyson Fury has been offered the chance to face Jon Jones in UFC by Dana White. The proposal comes after Tyson and Jones were the topic of a war of words last week, following debates around who out of the two fighters would prevail in a street fight.

When UFC commentator Joe Rogan claimed that MMA fighter Jones would comfortably beat up heavyweight boxing champ Fury, the Englishman posted an angry rant on Instagram littered with industrial language.

Despite the tirade from Fury, he took back most of what he said after Jones addressed the situation and instead challenged the UFC fighter to a boxing match.

UFC president White was asked about the situation when interviewed by BroBible. He said: “Jon Jones is the baddest dude on the planet, there’s no debate, there’s no denying it.

“There’s no debate. I don’t care what anyone says, everybody can try to spin it, a lot of this stuff is clickbait. You know how I am. If Tyson Fury really wants to fight Jon Jones in the UFC, I will make it happen.

“Tyson, if you’re serious, let me know. Tyson and I have a good relationship, I like Tyson Fury… Let’s find out. We can talk all we want. Tyson can talk, Jon Jones can talk, I can talk, we can all talk, let’s do it.”

The chances of Fury temporarily switching from boxing to UFC seem pretty unlikely, but if he did, it would not be the first time that a professional boxer and UFC have gone head-to-head.

White was involved in the 2017 groundbreaking event when boxing champion Floyd Mayweather faced UFC champion Conor McGregor in a boxing match that generated over four million pay-per-view sales.

All-time great Mayweather eventually won the fight, contested in his own specialised sport, but only after 10 rounds.

Speaking about the pioneering event during the same interview with BroBible, White said: “If Tyson is serious and he wants to do it, I got Floyd Mayweather to fight. We paid Floyd and got him the number he wanted. If Tyson Fury is serious and he wants to fight Jon Jones in the UFC, let’s start talking.”

Fury has not appeared in the ring since beating Derek Chisora to defend his WBC heavyweight world championship belt in December 2022, but there are hopes that he could face Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia before the end of the year.

Jon Jones recently took the UFC heavyweight championship title after a first-round submission win against Ciryl Gane and ‘Bones’ is expected to defend his belt against Stipe Miocic in the coming months.