Francis Ngannou, the UFC heavyweight champion, is parting ways with the promotion, leaving the title vacant. Ngannou’s departure from the UFC stemmed largely from contract negotiations breaking down, but Ngannou revealed in a recent episode of The MMA Hour that his relationship with the organization was always somewhat fraught.
“It was before the Stipe fight, because I negotiated. My last contract was negotiated at that moment. It took me almost three years to figure out what was the problem, but I think the problem was because during negotiations, I said something to Dana White.
Ngannou Reveals Where UFC Negotiations Broke Down
I completely [made a] mistake. I didn’t know what I meant at that time, but I think he felt threatened by that when I said, ‘Doesn’t matter, we can make a deal for this fight, we just focus on the Stipe fight,’ because I was making that deal like six weeks before the fight, and they were pushing me, and I didn’t even have time to find a manager. Then I’m like, ‘OK, I will do it on my own.’ And then, sitting there with him, I’m like, ‘Let’s just focus on this one. We can negotiate after every fight.’
I think that was the thing that I said to Dana, and you shouldn’t say something like that to somebody like Dana White.” Years later, Ngannou felt that something was off with White, but could not exactly put his finger on it.
“Because I tried, for the next two years, I tried to figure out what really happened. I felt really bad, like, ‘OK, I’m mistaken somewhere, I did something wrong.’ I tried to figure it out. We even asked for a meeting to go meet Dana at his office with [my then-agent] Marquel [Martin], and asked what happened, and [White] never said exactly what happened. I was busting my head for nothing until I found out exactly what it was.
They were trying to tell me that I want to be there, that they want me to stay in the UFC. And I said, ‘I want to stay in the UFC. But I don’t feel like the UFC wants me any more.’
It’s been a long time that I don’t have a promoter. I’m in the promotion, but I don’t have a promoter. I’ve been feeling that for the past three or four years. I don’t have a promoter.”
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