Dana White’s business practises have made him few friends, and it seems that his ongoing feud with heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou won’t be settling down any time soon. According to an interview on The MMA Hour, Ngannou, who just defended his heavyweight title against surging prospect Ciryl Gane, faced a lawsuit from White and the UFC over contact with Jake Paul.
Ngannou revealed that the UFC threatened to sue his management for talking to Nakisa Bidarian, the UFC’s former CFO and Jake Paul’s current business partner.
Ngannou: UFC threatened lawsuit over alleged Jake Paul contact
“Going into this fight, going into the arena, I dress up, I put on my suit and I walked to the room waiting for my manager and my coach and they were like ‘wow’ and I’m like what’s going on?
They tell me that they just received an email from the UFC saying they’re going to sue him from talking with this guy Nakisa [Bidarian] and I’m like who is Nakisa?
They was telling me I don’t know him pretty much but he’s somebody from Jake Paul’s team. I’m like is he a promoter or something? They’re like ‘no’ but once again, I don’t know. It doesn’t look like they want to talk to me anymore.”
Dana White had previously blasted Bidarian in the press, but Francis Ngannou maintains that he has no idea who the man is or why his management might be talking to him. “I don’t know who the hell is this guy, first of all.
I don’t know him, I wouldn’t recognize him if you put him in front of me. Secondly, he’s not a promoter and it’s not like I can’t have a dialogue with people about boxing. I talk about boxing all the time.”
Francis Ngannou has made no secret of his desire to compete in the boxing ring. Speculation about a crossover superfight against world heavyweight champ Tyson Fury remains rife, but Ngannou has yet to confirm if a boxing match is in his future. For now, he needs to recover from the leg injury that plagued him during his five-round firefight with Ciryl Gane.
Post-fight, Ngannou says his manager received a “racist” text from an anonymous number, which he says is evidence that he’s doing something right. Was a member of the UFC brass behind the childish harassment?
“On Saturday morning, my manager received an anonymous message, it was very weird. We don’t know [who sent the message] but that message was very weird, very racist, insulting.
I think somebody is very pissed off, which means we have been doing the right thing. I don’t have any guess since I don’t have any proof.”
What do you think of the latest excalation in the White vs Ngannou feud? Let us know in the comments.
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