There is no love lost between UFC president Dana White and former heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. Following news of Ngannou’s landmark deal with UFC rival promotion PFL (Professional Fighters’ League), White declared the deal a “bunch of bullsh*t” at a press conference.
“A lot of this stuff’s ust come from the media but when you think about Francis, you know their last champion, or maybe current champion, lost to Tybura.
UFC President Dana White Goes Off on Francis Ngannou, PFL
The champion now lost to Jiri Prochazka in the first round, who isn’t even a heavyweight. Francis doesn’t want to fight these two guys now! Am I the only one that just this whole thing is a bunch of bullsh*t?”
White’s rant continued for some time, openly criticizing Ngannou for not wanting to fight. “It makes no sense to me. You’re gonna pay a guy not to fight for a year. It’s already been eighteen months. He’s fought three times in the last three years, just not what we do here […]
He obviously didn’t want to take a chance against Jon Jones. And after we saw what happened with Ciryl Gane, you know, I don’t blame him. I think the outcome would have been exactly the same. And I’m sure most of you do, and I’m sure Francis does too.”
White once again took umbrage with Ngannou’s stated desire to compete as a boxer. “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 the 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.
I put on fights with the best fighters in the world and fights that people want to see.” White also pointed out that the UFC tried to keep Ngannou under their roof, but stated his belief that Ngannou is chasing McGregor vs Mayweather money, regardless of whether that can even materialize for the former UFC heavyweight champion.
“Francis could have done a deal here. Hunter threw the kitchen sink at that guy. Hunter went to more dinners with Francis Ngannou and did everything in his power to try to get this fight done.
Francis just thinks that he’s in a position where he’s got some Conor McGregor Mayweather fight on his hands, which he does not. That fight was like a once in a lifetime type deal. A fight that I wasn’t very interested in, and at the end of the day it became so big, the right guys, the right time, the right place, the fans wanted it, so we did it and we got it done.
MMA guys vs boxers doesn’t make any sense to me but I know that he thinks there’s all this money in it. I disagree. I don’t think there is.”
