So, the most anticipated heavyweight fight in the history of UFC won’t happen. Jon Jones will make his comeback in March, but he won’t fight Francis Ngannou. The people will have a brand new heavyweight champion after the UFC 285.
This Saturday, Dana White revealed the disappointing news that the Cameroonian Francis Ngannou decided not to accept the ‘generous’ offer that Dana had for him. The UFC decided to strip Francis Ngannou from his UFC title and release him from his contract, making him a free agent in the MMA world. Finally, Dana White announced that the UFC will not negotiate any more deals with the heavyweight. At last, after 2 years of negotiations and a bad relationship, Francis Ngannou will walk away from the UFC promotion.
Francis Ngannou Rejects More Than $2.5 Million Per Fight From Dana White And Leaves The UFC
Dana White thinks that the reason behind the inability to find common ground with Francis Ngannou is not the financial aspect of his contract only. Nevertheless, according to the UFC President, Francis Ngannou doesn’t want to take the risk of fighting the greatest of all time, Jon Jones.
“We offered Francis a deal that would have made him the highest-paid heavyweight in the history of the company.” – Dana White revealed. “More than Brock Lesnar, more than anybody, and he turned the deal down. We get to this point where I’ve told you, guys, before, if you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be here. I think Francis is in a place right now where he doesn’t want to take a lot of risk. He feels he’s in a good position where he could fight lesser opponents and make more money. So we’re going to let him do that. We’re going to release him from his contract, we’re going to give up our right to match, and he can go wherever he wants and do whatever he wants. That’s where we’re at.”
It is evident that UFC fans will miss the great heavyweight Francis Ngannou’s presence in the octagon. However, this outcome might be the best for both the UFC and Ngannou. The UFC will have its new heavyweight champion in March, and Francis Ngannou is free to continue his endeavors in the boxing world.
Francis Ngannou said numerous times that he wants his new UFC contract to allow him to pursue a career in boxing in parallel. However, this seems to be something that is impossible to negotiate. The UFC won’t allow boxing to interfere with his UFC career. And this might have been the deal breaker for Ngannou.
Dana White even explained how the UFC gave Francis Ngannou the Jon Jones fight, a fight that should’ve been enough to compel him to stay. The UFC expected this to be one of the greatest pay-per-view fights in the history of the sport. However, Francis Ngannou shows to be a very hard nut to crack.
“We did everything we could to try to make this fight happen and try to give him the fight. But he’s got it in his head that there’s bigger opportunities outside the UFC with lesser opponents.” – Dana White said. “You’re going to fight arguably the greatest fighter of all time. You’d be the highest-paid heavyweight ever in heavyweight history. Do you think there’s more money out there to fight somebody who isn’t the greatest of all time, somebody who is a lesser opponent? You’ll have to ask Francis that question, but in my opinion, that’s what it is.”
The UFC president told that Francis Ngannou is one of the two fighters in UFC history to not accept a deal after everything was done from the UFC’s end. Francis Ngannou and Fedor Emilianenko.
“However, he’s the second guy that we couldn’t come to a deal with. Now it’s him and Fedor Emelianenko.” – Dana White said. “We did everything we could to get him to take the deal. Nevertheless, I think UFC COO Hunter Campbell went to 350 dinners with him. We did what we could do. However, it just didn’t work out.”
“I think he doesn’t want to take the risk.” – Dana White said of Ngannou. “You’re going in against Jon Jones, the best of all time. At the end of the day there’s nothing wrong with that, that’s just not what we do here. The best fight, the best here. There’s plenty of places where you can do that, and that’s where he’ll end up. Nevertheless, he’ll end up somewhere where somebody will throw some money at him. He’s going to fight fights he thinks he can win.”
Dana White did not wait too long to find a new opponent for his favorite Jon Jones. Immediately after the announcement of Francis’ departure, the UFC announced that his place will be filled by Cyril Gane.
This is great news for Jon Jones fans. He will be back after 3 years of being inactive in the octagon. On the other side, this will be Cyril Gane’s second title shot since losing the first one to Francis Ngannou.
“I am really excited, I am really a little bit frustrated, but, we knew that already. This guy is really, he’s hard to fight. He’s orthodox, you understand. But anyway, anyway I’m still happy, I’m still happy because we had good news today. Let’s go, let’s go forward.” – Cyril Gane told at the press conference.
Cyril Gane said how he already expected that this would happen with Francis Ngannou. He told that this is the reason behind his numerous callouts to Jon Jones, even after the fight has been scheduled between him and Francis Ngannou.
“What will make me happier, winning the title or beating the GOAT?” – Cyril Gane said. “We will see.”
