Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
UFC president Dana White is continuing his war of words with former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, who was recently crowned PFL Super Fights heavyweight champion after a first-round knockout victory over Renan Ferreira this past Saturday.
When asked about Ngannou’s performance in his PFL debut, White declared that the 38-year-old is “all about the money.” He also claimed that Ngannou would’ve made more money had he stayed in the UFC.
Ben Fowlkes @benfowlkesMMA
In this short clip he claims:
1. Francis is all about the money and that’s why he left the UFC.
2. Francis would have made more money if he’d stayed in the UFC.
My good man do you not see that your arguments are in direct conflict with each other? https://t.co/IftJOVpiYA
Ngannou departed the UFC after his contract expired in January 2023. He hadn’t fought in a year after suffering a knee injury when he defeated interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane in a title unification fight at UFC 270 in January 2022.
Upon leaving the UFC, Ngannou signed a multi-fight deal with PFL that allowed him to book high-profile boxing matches against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. While he lost both bouts, he proved his star power in the marquee matchups that drew large audiences.
Still, White hasn’t gotten over Ngannou’s success outside of the UFC. He declared, “Nobody wants to fight in the f–king PFL except for Francis.” However, he claimed that he was ready to cut Ngannou after he lost back-to-back fights in 2018, but someone at the UFC “begged” him to keep him on the roster. If he didn’t want Ngannou in the UFC in the first place, it’s not clear why it irks him that he’s fighting in the PFL.
White also re-asserted the claim that Ngannou “didn’t want to fight Jon Jones, that’s a fact.” However, it was White who said at the UFC 260 post-fight press conference in 2021 after Ngannou defeated Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title, “If I’m Jon Jones and I’m at home watching this fight, I start moving to 185 pounds.”
When asked further at the time if a fight between Ngannou and Jones was a possibility, White responded, “Listen, I could sit here all day and tell you, what ‘Show me the money’ means. You can say you want to fight someone, but do you really want to?” He was referencing a tweet from Jones, indicating that it was Jones who was stopping the fight from happening.
Now, Jones is scheduled to defend the heavyweight title against Miocic in the main event of UFC 309 on Nov. 16. It will be Jones’ first fight since winning the title in March 2023, as he was recovering from a torn labrum.
For his part, Ngannou hasn’t dug too deep when going back and forth with White, simply claiming that he left the UFC to gain more control over his career, which is exactly what he got with the PFL.
“The guy who controls the narrative can say what he wants,” Ngannou said at a news conference in August. “But that’s not the narrative. I requested the Jon Jones fight. But I didn’t want it to be a trap to get into a new deal with the UFC that I didn’t want.”
