Maybe you haven’t, but many have said he was afraid lol. How you gonna be afraid of someone in your own sport. Going into boxing with 1 professional fight against one of the hardest hitters with no experience is Insane
i don't think fear is the best way to describe it. None of these guys are afraid to fight eachother.
It's more that this is prize fighting and fighters, especially at the level of Jon Jones / Ngannou will be fighting for their worth.
That's why It took until 2022 before Jones finally came to an agreement with the UFC.
And also why Ngannou was in discussions for over a year before finally leaving.
Jones is arguably the greatest fighter of all time, which both Ngannou and his coach knew very well. Everyone who understands the fight game knows this very well. It's only the fans who are wrapped up in their hatred of the man who deny it.
Ngannou even said that he felt Jones would do better at HW than he did LHW, because there is a huge gap in the technical skill level and well roundedness between the two divisions.
Ngannou wasn't afraid to fight him, but he was definitely concerned what would happen, if he did lose to Jones.
All of the opportunity he's built himself up to have would suddenly go up in smoke. He'd be making 1-2 mil a fight and locked down to a contract, where he wouldn't be able to do much more than that.
I think we can all say, he made the right decision.
But the bottom line is that it wasn't Jones who held up that fight when they truly had the ability to make it.