UFC's Dana White Rips Francis Ngannou, PFL Contract: 'Francis ...
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Dana White is not impressed with Francis Ngannou's historic PFL contract.
The UFC president ripped Ngannou and the PFL for the deal, which provides the former UFC heavyweight champion equity in the company and a seat on its board of directors. Ngannou was also able to guarantee his opponents at least $2 million per fight.
"Based on what I know about the deal, which is not much, it makes no sense to me," White told reporters Saturday. "You're going to pay a guy not to fight for a year, and it's already been like [14] months. He's fought three times in the last three years.
"It's just not what we do here. It's not what we do. And the day that we released him, I knew exactly what was going to happen. Francis wants to take zero risks, doesn't want to take any chances, and he obviously didn't want to take a chance with Jon Jones — and after we saw what happened with Ciryl Gane, I don't blame him. I think the outcome would've been exactly the same, and I'm sure most of you do and I'm sure Francis does too."
"It makes no sense to me."<br><br>Dana White criticizes Francis Ngannou's deal with the PFL. The UFC boss also said Ngannou doesn't want to take any risks, especially against Jon Jones. ????<br><br>More: <a href="https://t.co/0n7v4Wcqf6">https://t.co/0n7v4Wcqf6</a> <a href="https://t.co/MtrTLV3CGe">pic.twitter.com/MtrTLV3CGe</a>
Ngannou will not debut in the PFL until next year as he pursues his professional boxing debut later in 2023. The 36-year-old is yet to have a date set or an opponent for his foray into boxing, but he's set his sights on the likes of Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.
White ripped into Ngannou's attempt at becoming a boxer, saying it's a "gimmick" fight and indicating he does not feel there's a Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather level of interest in seeing him make his boxing debut.
"PFL is going to pay this guy to train for a boxing match that may not even happen and that they might not even be involved in. How does that make any sense?" White said. "It doesn't make sense to me. Anthony Joshua called it a gimmick fight this week. When asked about that fight, he's like, 'I'm focused on fighting the best guys in the world. I'm not interested in a gimmick fight right now.' And that's one of the big problems with boxing right now, is it's all about these gimmicky type fights, and that's just not what I do here. It's not what I do."
Ngannou left UFC in January as the reigning heavyweight champion, becoming the first title holder to depart since BJ Penn in 2004. It's clear based on his comments there's still some hard feelings from White's direction.
