UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou has plenty of time to think while he rehabilitates his broken knee. Speaking on Sirius XM Radio, Ngannou discussed the timeline for his return and what he believes can be done to take the sport of MMA to the next level.
First up is improved working conditions for the fighters. “When you look at the sport, you think everything is perfect? No, I don’t think everything is perfect.
Francis Ngannou Wants to Make MMA “The Greatest Sport”. Here’s How
Over time, I realized there’s a lot of issues that can be fixed. I was getting frustrated at some point, because I feel unprotected, which is exactly the situation that all fighters are in, too. I would like the UFC to consider their position in a lot of things now regarding to fighters. Sponsorships, I think fighters should also have the right to put a sponsor on their shirt, not just for the company to make money out of it. Why not?
They are not making money out of it. I understand that they want to make this uniform, they want to make the sport [look] clean, I understand that, or not [to] let any type of sponsor get into the octagon, or not [to] let any unappealing sponsor or brand get into the octagon, which I truly agree with that, but we should have some sort of way to check and approve certain sponsors so you can bring a sponsor inside [the UFC] and make money out of it.
I’m sure over time, UFC fighters, we are losing a lot of power. The company is getting big, getting stronger, and we have no power.”
While Ngannou does not believe the UFC is deliberately screwing fighters over, he would like to see representation at the highest levels of the sport.
“We have nobody there to advocate for us, just in the room making decisions, nobody cares for the fighters, even though there are about 700 fighters in the promotion. Then I think they should consider somebody to advocate for fighters, because I don’t believe they make all those decisions to harm fighters, but sometimes, they don’t just understand the fighters’ position.
If we have some sort of fighter representation in their board meetings, we will be like, ‘OK guys, you should think about fighters’ – just to remind them sometimes, it would be a little bit better. There’s a lot of things that can be changed, who can be right. The fighter pay, that’s a huge problem that everyone’s aware of, and it seems like we keep rolling like nothing is going on. The health insurance, the same problem. I would like to see some of those solved.”
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