As if heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou’s contract negotiations with the UFC needed any more complexity, boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed that he was, at one point, trying to bring Ngannou over to the ring. In an interview on The MMA Hour, Hearn claimed that upon hearing that Ngannou was interested in boxing, he put together a public Zoom call that turned into a “press conference”.
“During the pandemic, I was doing loads of stuff on Zoom, just trying to create content, and I read that Francis wanted to be a boxer and was interested in fighting.
Eddie Hearn Tried Tempting Ngannou into Boxing
So I got in touch with his team because he had a little bit of beef with Dillian Whyte, nothing major, but I got in touch with his team and I said, let’s do a Zoom, you, me, and Dillian Whyte.
Just bored. So they agreed to it, and next thing, I’m on a Zoom with Dillian Whyte and Francis Ngannou basically going at it. ‘I’ll knock you out, he’s all hype, blah, blah, blah.”
Dana White, true to form, quickly put a stop to these antics. White’s vice grip on Ngannou’s promotional activities may well have fed into the ongoing dispute between the UFC and their heavyweight champion.
“Then word has got to the UFC that I’ve done, ultimately, a press conference to promote a fight. I wasn’t even thinking, and then Dana messaged me and said, ‘What are you doing? You’ve done a press conference with Francis Ngannou and Dillian Whyte.
And I’m like, ‘Well it wasn’t really a press conference, it was just a Zoom.’ Then I got a legal letter from the UFC to say you can’t be putting this out.
They were a million percent right, but at the time I was thinking ‘this is massive!’. And I still think Francis Ngannou vs. Tyson Fury, Francis Ngannou vs. AJ [Anthony Joshua], Dillian, they’re huge, huge fights.”
Hearn also said that he believes the UFC would eventually cave in to Ngannou’s demands. We may well see the Cameroonian champion cross over into the boxing world.
“Ultimately, during that period, the pressure’s on the UFC to go to Francis Ngannou and do a new deal, and they’ll significantly overpay him from where he’s at.
But it comes down to the feeling of the fighter to say, ‘I feel like I’ve been mistreated so I don’t want to be here anymore,’ but I would be shocked if they didn’t do a new deal with Francis Ngannou. I would say it’s almost a certainty that they will by the time it all plays out.”
Do you think we’ll eventually see Francis Ngannou as a boxer? Let us know in the comments.
