Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou entered free agency earlier this year after exiting his UFC deal. Ngannou was the biggest name in MMA free agency, and recently signed a landmark deal with rival promotion PFL.
Ngannou revealed on a recent episode of The MMA Hour that the Bareknuckle Fighting Championship and One FC attempted – if halfheartedly – to procure his signature, which he called a “joke.”
Francis Ngannou: One, BKFC “Jokes” Compared to PFL Deal
Ngannou first addressed the notion from BKFC President David Feldman that he was too expensive to sign. “I just think he assumed that I’m so expensive, obviously because he had to take a loan on his house to put on a show, I think he assumed that loan couldn’t pay me, because I never spoke to him. My team never spoke to him.
When I saw his comment, I was like, ‘Where is this guy coming from?’ Then I checked my phone, I called my team, like, ‘Did somebody talk to this guy that I’m not aware of?’ And everyone … was like, ‘No, we haven’t talked with this guy.’ So I don’t know where this came from. That’s why I didn’t talk about it. This guy is just a joke.
At some point, he was promoting his show, his event. He’s going to do anything to get a little bit of PR here and there, anything he can do. But I never talked to that guy, we never asked him anything, and he never even reached out.
Not to say we were interested — we weren’t — but he never even reached out, so he didn’t know if we were interested. That’s why I say some promoters out there, two-faced. Crazy stuff.”
Ngannou next detailed his discussions with ONE FC Chairman Chatri Sityodtong. “I think Chatri was just performing.
I told him and Matt Hume that I got the best offer from PFL and I don’t think, I’m not going to do any negotiation with you guys. That was like back, six weeks before that. And he was like, ‘Oh, I can fly you to Singapore, I can fly to Cameroon! I got this!’ He was all in.
I was like, this is too much. I don’t know how to handle this. How are you going to fly to Cameroon? What for? I just told the guy the situation and then he kept pushing. Then I sent it to my team, ‘I can’t handle this pressure from Chatri.’ Then he kept pushing, kept pushing.
So I have to see him, for respect. We had a talk, I respect the guy. Matter of fact, I love Chatri. Before this, I was like, I like this guy, I like his story. Now I even question if that story is true. But I used to love that story.”
