Dana White launched one of his infamous tirades on Saturday night after being told he had ‘lost’ a battle with his former heavyweight champion.
Francis Ngannou claims that he got the better of the fallout following his exit from the UFC in 2022, having received three massive paydays in a year of activity. He fought in the boxing ring twice and made his PFL debut, all in Riyadh with his collective purses believed to be in the tens of millions.
But White was not so sure about the facts of the case, insisting that he wanted rid of the Cameroonian years prior to his release. He also claimed that the beloved heavyweight is faking his ‘good guy’ persona, which has made him one of MMA’s most popular figures.
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Francis Ngannou claims he won the split with Dana White after UFC exit
There’s no doubt that since leaving the UFC, Francis Ngannou’s earning power and celebrity has been massively on the rise. He infamously made just $600,000 as a disclosed purse for his sole heavyweight title in the promotion before leaving on bad terms with boss Dana White.
And after recovering from injury and signing a deal with PFL that secured his MMA future, he made his long-awaited transition to the boxing ring last October. He went straight in at the deep end, facing then-WBC and lineal champion Tyson Fury, whom he put down on route to a razor close split decision loss.
While his sophomore outing against Anthony Joshua didn’t go as well; ending in a vicious second round knockout, he made his successful return to the cage last weekend. Headlining a rare PFL Super Fights pay-per-view, he stopped Renan Ferreira within a round to cement his spot as MMA’s top heavyweight.
“I think Dana is trying to make things up so he can buy a good face in the position that he has lost,” Ngannou said during a recent appearance on MMA Today. “Dana has lost in this situation and the only thing is that he cannot stand it.
“Bro, I won everything, the guy can’t live without it. He can’t handle me. Regardless of everything that happened, it’s not about him – I went out there to have a great fight for my son’s memory, but the guy can’t stand [me].
“I don’t know what his problem is, and he can make everything up as he wants, that’s his problem – he needs to make peace with himself… You could’ve just said ‘We couldn’t find any agreement, we couldn’t come to a deal but good luck to him,’ that’s i.
“But fast forward and we continue our lives – what’s the problem here? What money is he talking about? The money that he owes me. They said that they were going to back-pay the money that we owe you from Stipe [Miocic] and Ciryl [Gane]…
“They never back-paid me, and now I have made more money than I would have ever made in the UFC. Twice in my career UFC career.”
Dana White tears into Francis Ngannou after latest comments
However, the UFC boss has a slightly different account of the situation. He claims that after Ngannou was defeated by Stipe Miocic the first time and then had a stinker against Derrick Lewis to slump to a second defeat back in 2018, he wanted to wash his hands of the heavy hitter.
According to his story, he was convinced by behind the scenes personnel in the UFC to keep Ngannou on board. But he regrets that decision, and believes that it caused him more hassle than it was worth in the long run.
During his post-fight press conference at UFC 308, he denied the claims that the promotion owes Ngannou any money. He even joked that the Cameroonian owes both he and the viewers money for putting on such a disastrous showing against Derrick Lewis.
“When have you ever heard a story in all the years we’ve been in business, even when it was upside down, where we owed somebody money?” White replied when faced with Ngannou’s quotes. “Never happened so he’s full of s*** there.
“I lost? I didn’t lose anything, I was done with Francis – he actually owes me money because we had to watch that fight between him and the Black Beast. He should actually pay me back for that fight, and all of you.
“Me praying for [his downfall]? Trust me, I don’t think about Francis that much. You guys asked me the question about the PFL and I responded. Other than that, the only one who’s praying for his demise is probably the PFL because they signed a s****y contract with a guy who doesn’t deliver any numbers.
“That’s ticket sales or pay-per-views, and they’ve got to keep paying this guy for however long and good for him. Not good for them.”
Dana White insists that Francis Ngannou is faking ‘good guy’ image
As if his initial tirade wasn’t enough, White continued to rip into Ngannou personally, questioning his character in a second response to the line of questioning from MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn. He also repeated his claim that the heavyweight champion would have made more money staying in UFC.
“That’s a fact,” he said of the highly disputed claim. “He can play those games all he wants, he would have made more money here. Let me tell you what, there were two guys here – I wanted to cut him – some day I’ll tell you the story.
“I was all about Francis in the beginning and then I found out who Francis was. And I told the two guys who asked me not to cut Francis; ‘when somebody shows you who they are, believe them’. Believe me, I have no sleepless nights over Francis leaving.
“I didn’t like Francis as a person, he wasn’t a guy I wanted to do business with. My boys were telling me he’s misunderstood, and I told them ‘when somebody shows you who they are, believe them’. It wasn’t about him becoming heavyweight champion of the world.
“Francis isn’t a good guy, he plays a good guy. ‘Oh I don’t understand the language,’ so he seems like he’s a nice guy, he’s not and he’s not a guy that I wanted to be in business with, period, end of story, whether he became the champion or not.”
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