The big news in recent days is that Francis Ngannou will be earning the payday of his life as he will box WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury on Oct. 28 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. However, he still has a future in MMA as he is currently contracted to the PFL and expected to make his debut for the promotion in the first quarter of 2024.

That said, the big regret for most combat sports fans is still not seeing Francis Ngannou face off with UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones. The possibility was there for many years, but for now, all we can hope for is an unlikely interpromotional fight. Interpromotional fights aren't impossible — they're actually very doable. The only roadblock is the UFC doesn't seem open to co-promoting with any other MMA organization. But should UFC president Dana White ever change his mind, here are five interpromotional fights that are definitely ones we would all watch.

Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou

As aforementioned, this is probably number one for every MMA fan as far as interpromotional matchups go. Jones, the current UFC heavyweight champion and arguably the greatest fighter of all time, going up against probably the scariest and most powerful heavyweight knockout artist of all time in Ngannou.

Sure, it could go the same way as the Ciryl Gane fight as Ngannou's wrestling is far from the level of Jones. However, “The Predator” has much better takedown defense than Gane and showed that along with his strength when he stuffed the takedown attempts of Stipe Miocic in their UFC heavyweight title rematch and started throwing scary ground and pound.

How would Jones fight and react to the power of Ngannou? Would Ngannou be able to stop his wrestling threat? Sadly, we'll never know…for now.

Israel Adesanya vs. Johnny Eblen

Israel Adesanya is ruling over the UFC middleweight division again and unless Dricus du Plessis manages to shock the world again at UFC 293, it looks like “The Last Stylebender” will remain champion. But what if he faced Johnny Eblen?

Eblen is the current Bellator middleweight champion and boasts a perfect 13-0 record. He notably won the title following a lopsided decision win over UFC veteran and former Strikeforce champion Gegard Mousasi and is a massive threat with his wrestling. Jorge Masvidal even called him the best middleweight on the planet.

While Adesanya has defeated wrestlers before, it would be very interesting to see if he could handle the constant wrestling threat of someone like Eblen.

Aljamain Sterling vs. Demetrious Johnson

You might be thinking — Demetrious Johnson is ONE Championship flyweight champion, why would he fight the UFC's bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling? Well, the Singapore-based promotion's weight classes are such that flyweights compete at 135 pounds while bantamweights compete at 145 pounds and so on. So essentially, “DJ” has been competing as a bantamweight ever since he was traded from the UFC.

We all saw how Henry Cejudo had a close and competitive encounter with Sterling at UFC 288 earlier this year. Now imagine how Cejudo's rival in Johnson — regarded by many as a GOAT candidate and one of the most skilled fighters of all time — would fare? There'll be a size discrepancy just like Cejudo had, but that hasn't stopped Johnson going by his trilogy with Adriano Moraes.

Jiri Prochazka vs. Vadim Nemkov

Yes, there is no light heavyweight champion in the UFC right now. So for this example, let's go with Jiri Prochazka since he still remains the “lineal” 205-pound champion and is expected to get a title shot upon his return. There's the tasty prospect of him fighting Alex Pereira in the future, but imagine a potential clash with Bellator's light heavyweight champion in Vadim Nemkov?

The two actually fought back in Dec. 2015 with Nemkov suffering a TKO loss. Nemkov would lose his next fight, but has been undefeated in his following 12 fights since with notable wins over Ryan Bader, Corey Anderson and Yoel Romero. Both fighters have improved tremendously since their first meeting and the fact that this would be a rematch further adds to the intrigue.

Islam Makhachev vs. Christian Lee

Finally, we have a clash between UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and ONE Championship welterweight and lightweight champion Christian Lee. This is kind of cheating since Lee competes at 170 and 185 pounds given the aforementioned weight classes at ONE. However, he has competed at 155 pounds as well and when it comes to size, him and Makhachev are pretty similar.

So with that said, how would a fight between them go? Most would favor Makhachev and his grappling and with good reason too. However, Lee — one of the best fighters outside the UFC — has speed and youth on his side. Plus, if ONE champions are really as good as UFC champions like CEO Chatri Sityodtong claims, this should be a fascinating contest.