Francis Ngannou

UFC President Dana White told ESPN's Laura Sanko on Wednesday that he didn't put the title belt on Francis Ngannou following his victory over Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 because he left immediately after the fight to address something backstage, though he didn't specify what required his attention.

"For anybody that thinks I was showing any kind of disrespect towards Francis—I saw Francis all week, you idiots," he said in the interview. "I shook his hand, I said hi to him. I was out there for the staredowns, the whole thing."

Ngannou told reporters after his win Saturday night that he didn't know why UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, and not White, put the heavyweight title around his waist.

"I don't know. You have to ask him," he said. "No, I did not have anything to do about that. I think that was their decision. I'm about to ask about that, too."

White also didn't attend Ngannou's press conference after the win, which was news to Ngannou.

"Wow, OK, I didn't know that, too," he said.

Ngannou and the UFC have had their disagreements of late when it's come to agreeing on a new contract for the fighter, leading to speculation that White perhaps didn't put on Ngannou's belt or attend his press conference because of that rift.

"I wish [White] would’ve taken the high road and just went in and done it, and just been a part of that," Ngannou's coach Eric Nicksick said on The MMA Hour this week. "Because the last couple weeks, I felt like Dana and Francis had been mending things. I felt like those two had been trying to become better and heal that relationship. So for him to not be there—again, I don't know his reasons why, I don't know if he got, all of a sudden he had a stomach issue, something—but for him not to be there, I just thought it was kind of a weak move."

Ngannou, 35, has emerged as one of the UFC's brightest stars, with six straight wins. He's now 17-3 in his professional career.

But it's arguable that he's being paid like a champion in one of the biggest sporting promotions in the world. Per the California State Athletic Commission (h/t Morgan Campbell of the New York Times), Ngannou pulled just $600,000 in guaranteed money for fighting Gane.

While Ngannou's contract with the UFC is up, the promotion does have a clause guaranteeing them the next fight for a defending titleholder. Ngannou told reporters after his UFC 270 win that he will become a free agent if he doesn't fight again in 2022, however.

So while White denied that his absence from the ring following Nbannou's big win was about disrespecting the fighter, it's hard to ignore the history between the two men amid the ongoing contract dispute.

And it's hard to completely ignore the possibility of a purposeful snub from White, especially without more clarity on what backstage situation he might have been handling.

Francis Ngannou will undergo surgery on his knee after suffering a torn MCL and damaged ACL, his manager Marquel Martin told Brett Okamoto of ESPN.

The injuries reportedly occurred during the build-up to his fight against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270, which Ngannou won to retain his UFC heavyweight championship. It was the sixth straight win for the 35-year-old, including his knockout of Stipe Miocic for the belt in March 2021. 

Martin projected Ngannou's recovery to last about nine months before he is able to train or compete again. 

The injury comes at an interesting time for Ngannou, who has said he wouldn't take part in another UFC fight without a new contract. 

Per Okamoto, Ngannou has completed eight fights as part of his initial eight-part contract. Though he would have been a free agent if he lost on Saturday, the win triggers a "champion's clause" that keeps him under contract for either three fights or one year.

The No. 4 pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC rankings said he would hold out if necessary, but the knee injury could prevent him from competing over this time frame anyway.

The surgery also pushes back some potentially exciting bouts for Ngannou going forward.

The fighter teased a boxing match against WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury if allowed by UFC:

Jon Jones has also indicated his interest in moving up to heavyweight, sending out a warning over the weekend:

These superstars will have to find new opponents while Ngannou recovers from his surgery, which will take place after he returns to the United States from a planned trip home to Cameroon.

"I continue to be amazed and inspired by Francis' heart and resilience," Martin told Okamoto. "Fighting on one leg to overcome all odds, and remind the world he is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. I think we can all agree he deserves some time to go back home and be with his family and countrymen."   

Welcome back to the B/R MMA Mailbag. Here's where we answer your questions about the MMA issues of the day.

UFC 270 is in the rearview, and it may have raised more questions than it answered. After his unanimous decision win over Ciryl Gane in Saturday's main event, heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou faces a fork in the road. As does the UFC.

There has been plenty of talk about contracts of late. With a sizable lawsuit bringing more company details into the public sphere, our knowledge of fighter contracts and UFC business practices is more fleshed out than ever.

Why is this timely? More than one of this week's questions deal squarely with issues related to contracts. So let's jump right in. Want to see your question featured? Drop it in the mailbag each Monday, and I'll answer a selection of them here. Extra points for a solid piece of sarcasm.

Why didn't Dana White put the belt on Francis and no-show the presser after the fight? 

@PhilAccio

To properly answer this question, one must first plunge oneself down the contractual rabbit hole.

Dana White is a tenacious—some might say pugnacious—negotiator. He doesn't like it when anyone else has leverage. But Ngannou has a big share after Saturday's title defense. 

Here's the background: As many fans know, this was the last fight on Ngannou's existing contract. However, the UFC may invoke the champion's clause, which automatically extends that contract.

And yet, there was Ngannou talking openly about boxing Tyson Fury. Why? Because he has an ace up his sleeve—a belief that he could simply wait out the contract until early 2023. A perfect amount of time to undergo and rehab from, oh, I don't know, a knee surgery.

White is well aware of all of this and as such was surely rooting for Gane—don't forget, Gane was the favorite in this matchup. 

But Ngannou used that much-improved wrestling to turn the tables on Gane and White. So White, most likely in an agitated state after the contest, did what he does best: spit in the eyes of his adversaries, real and perceived. White didn't like what happened, so he took his ball and went home. No respect to the champ, no answering questions on something he doesn't want to talk about. We'll see how negotiations unfold from here and how Ngannou proceeds with that knee surgery.

When the dust settles, what fight will we end up seeing for the last fight of the Nate Diaz contract? Diaz-Poirier, Diaz-McGregor or Diaz flipping off the UFC?

@SchwinnArmstrong

I like to picture Nate Diaz just flipping the bird to everyone he sees. It's more like a greeting for Nate at this point. He holds the door for an old lady, she says thank you, he flips the bird. He's waiting for his latte at Starbucks, they call his name, he takes the latte and flips the bird to each barista one at a time. Then he accuses them all of taking PEDs. (Warning: tweet contains profanity)

That's the world I want to live in. In the world in which I actually live, contract issues are once again rearing their ugly heads.

Diaz is indeed on the final fight of his contract. But wait, you may be asking, didn't the UFC just extend his contract? Yes, but there's one little snag. Per MMA broadcaster Ariel Helwani, Diaz never signed it (h/t Bloody Elbow's Milan Ordonez).  

Diaz is spoiling for a battle with Poirier, but according to Helwani, the UFC may not let it happen unless Diaz extends his contract by one fight so he can also face McGregor when the notorious Irishman returns from the leg disintegration he sustained in his last bout with Poirier (h/t MMA Mania's Ryan Harkness). 

The alternative is for Diaz to wait to face McGregor in McGregor's return bout. But there are a lot of ifs in that scenario, not least of which is a potential McGregor date with lightweight champ Charles Oliveira or one of several other high-octane bangers in the UFC's current marquee division. Are you telling me you wouldn't shell out to see McGregor face Michael Chandler or Tony Ferguson? Of course not. To a lesser extent, McGregor's recovery timeline is a factor, though summer is an increasingly likely target.

There's a lot of uncertainty here, but my guess is the UFC will pull the trigger on Diaz-Poirier. That's a big pay-per-view draw, and with Diaz now 36 years old, the window won't stay open forever. McGregor will attract main-event-level eyeballs no matter whom he faces, so that matchmaking is more likely to take care of itself. Poirier and to a lesser extent Diaz need strong dance partners to make a surefire headliner. 

As they say, a bird in the hand [dons sunglasses] is worth two in the bush. 

What happens first, a fourth fight between Figgy and Moreno or does Kara-France get a shot? 

@TheWolfofBroadSt

Good question. Figgy, aka Deiveson Figueiredo, recaptured the flyweight title in the UFC 270 co-main event, leg-kicking his way to a unanimous decision win over Brandon Moreno.

With their first contest being a draw, and with each man now having one win over the other, there's clearly some unfinished business here.

Kai Kara-France is an electric striker, coming out of City Kickboxing in New Zealand, training alongside middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and plenty of others. He got the biggest win of his career in December when he wiped out former bantamweight champ and current glass cannon Cody Garbrandt. He's climbing the ladder in a big way, but he's still just 3-2 in his last five dating back to 2019.

Another strong possibility is Askar Askarov, an undefeated Dagestani whom Moreno fought to a draw, also in 2019. His grinding style isn't pretty, but it's damned effective. 

And hey, here's a neat twist: In a piece of solid match-making, Kara-France and Askarov are set to face off in March. The winner will be locked in as the top contender outside of Moreno and Figgy.

The UFC hasn't been quick to make a fourth fight between two rivals. In fact, they've never done it at all. There's no better time than now to break that seal. Both fighters have agreed in principle to a fourth bout, perhaps in Mexico or Brazil. 

The action between them is fierce, the margins razor thin. I think the UFC sets a new precedent and books these two greats for a historic matchup later this year.

We'll stop there for now, but see you next week. In the meantime, feel free to follow me on Twitter @ScottHarrisMMA.

UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou's relationship with the promotion is not in a good place.

Ngannou revealed on Monday's episode of The MMA Hour that the UFC threatened to sue his agent, Marquel Martin, over allegedly having talks with Jake Paul's business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, about Ngannou competing in boxing.

"I walked into the room waiting for my manager, my coach," Ngannou said on The MMA Hour (h/t ESPN's Marc Raimondi). "And they were like, 'Wow.' I'm like, 'What's going on?' They told me they just received an email from the UFC saying they're going to sue [Martin] for talking with this guy, Nakisa. Yeah. I'm like, 'Who is Nakisa?'"

Bidarian has ties to the UFC as the promotion's former chief financial officer. He's the co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions alongside Paul. It's also notable that Martin is an agent with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which is a rival company to Endeavor. Endeavor has a prominent stake in the UFC and a strong relationship with president Dana White.

Ngannou said Martin received the email a few hours before his main event fight at UFC 270 against interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane. Ngannou won the fight by unanimous decision to unify the titles.

Ngannou has been embroiled in a contract dispute with the UFC for quite some time now. As Raimondi noted, Saturday's main event was the last fight on Ngannou's UFC contract, but because he won, the "champions clause" kicks in and keeps him under contract for either three more fights or one year. He would've been a free agent had he lost the fight.

Ngannou said his current contract pays him $600,000 per fight, but his dissatisfaction is not solely because of the money. He said on The MMA Hour that he wants the freedom to compete in boxing while he's in the UFC, which is something the promotion has never allowed.

"You can be free and fight for the UFC," Ngannou said. "I just want to be free. We are supposedly independent contractors. [An] independent contractor is technically a free person. That's the reason why they need some adjustments in that contract. That's what I've been fighting for."

After seeing Ngannou's UFC 270 payday on Monday, Paul tweeted his support for fighters earning more money:

Then again, Paul didn't seem overly impressed by Ngannou's latest victory:

Meanwhile, Ngannou has shown Paul respect for his in-ring performance in recent months. He told TMZ Sports last month that he was "impressed" by Paul defeating Tyron Woodley in their rematch. He also noted people "better take him seriously because he proved it."

Now, alleged communication between the two sides has created an additional rift between the UFC and Ngannou, though it's not clear at this point when Ngannou will be able to fight again.

Ngannou revealed after UFC 270 that he was competing while suffering from a torn right MCL and damaged ACL. He will undergo surgery and is expected to be out for an extended period. He said that while he still hopes to compete again this year, no one from the UFC has approached him or his team regarding a new contract.

"It doesn't look like they want to talk to me anymore," he said.

Francis Ngannou seems on board for a fight against Tyson Fury based on Sunday's response to the heavyweight boxing champion:

Ngannou defeated Cyril Gane by decision at UFC 270 to retain the UFC heavyweight title Saturday night. It was his sixth win in a row, including a knockout victory over Stipe Miocic to first win the belt.

The question is what comes next for the 35-year-old, who said last week that he would not fight again in the UFC without a new contract, per ESPN's Brett Okamoto. While Ngannou completed the eight fights guaranteed in his last deal, Okamoto noted a champion's clause allows the UFC to keep him under contract for either three fights or one year.

Ngannou has still said he wants to try boxing before he retires and is looking to challenge himself against the best in the world.

"Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder. I would like to test myself to that level," Francis told TMZ Sports in December.

"It's not the same sport, although I'm the champion, I'm in the top in this division," he added. "At the end of the day, it's just about like trained hands, trained punches, having a good delivery system to produce bombs and I'm sure that if I deliver my own punch, it's pretty good, I can make some damage."

Fury, the current WBC champion, also teased a potential match against Ngannou earlier this month.

This would likely be a highly anticipated battle if the two sides can work it out on paper.

Amid speculation that he could move up to heavyweight, Jon Jones chimed in on his thoughts about Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane after their showdown at UFC 270 on Saturday night.

In a since-deleted post on Twitter, Jones wrote, "At the end of the day, I'm f--king them both up."

Ngannou defeated Gane by unanimous decision on Saturday night to win the undisputed UFC heavyweight championship.

There has been talk for a long time about Jones potentially fighting at heavyweight after dominating the light heavyweight division for years. The only loss of his career came via disqualification for use of illegal elbows against Matt Hamill in a 2009 fight he was otherwise dominating. 

UFC President Dana White told ESPN (h/t MMAFighting.com) in 2015 that Jones was "definitely" planning on fighting at heavyweight. 

Seven years later, Jones has yet to compete in any division other than light heavyweight. White did attempt to set up a match between Bones and Ngannou in 2020, but he told reporters talks broke down because Jones was seeking a massive payout in line with what Deontay Wilder was paid to fight Tyson Fury in a boxing match. 

"I'll quote him and what he had said to my lawyer. He told my lawyer he wants what Deontay Wilder was paid (for his most recent fight)," White said. "I think it was $30 million, was what Deontay Wilder was paid."

Ngannou no longer sounds like he's interested in a fight with Jones. 

"No, I'm done with that fight," he told reporters following Saturday's event. "I've been waiting for that fight for so long. After Stipe [Miocic], it was supposed to be Jon Jones, and that never happened. I don't know why. So I moved on."

Jones announced in August 2020 he vacated the UFC light heavyweight title. The 34-year-old hasn't fought since February 2020 when he defeated Dominick Reyes at UFC 247.

If you had "Francis Ngannou escapes a leglock" on your UFC bingo card, congratulations.

On Saturday in the main event of UFC 270, the heavyweight champion and baddest man on the planet brought a deeper bag of tricks to the cage than he ever had before. He needed all of them to overcome Cyril Gane—and a preexisting knee injury—to retain his title in Anaheim, California.

This was not a scintillating contest. Neither man landed 20 strikes in any single round, according to UFC stats. Offense was at a premium, meaning a few pivotal moments made all the difference. More often than not, it was a burst of much-improved wrestling from Ngannou—and one crucial misstep from Gane—that led to Ngannou's 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 unanimous-decision victory. 

"I knew he was going to be a tough opponent. ... I had to stay composed," Ngannou told famous broadcaster and podcaster Joe Rogan after the fight. "Calm down. Don't chase him, trust yourself and, yeah man, we did it. It's been an incredible journey."

Gane is a smart fighter with an effective read-and-react style in the cage. His footwork—downright Vitaly Lomachenko-esque for an MMA heavyweight—is exceptional. But he's not always fun to watch.

In the first round, as Ngannou pressed forward, Gane kept moving around the cage, switching stances and directions, basically doing whatever he could to mesmerize Ngannou. Gane outworked the champ overall and likely took the first on most fans' scorecards.

The second round picked up where the first left off. It was entirely too late at night for it to be one of those fights. But there it was, positively plodding. As Ngannou huffed and puffed, Gane out-landed him 19-10, according to the official stats.

Oh no, here came the third, and there was Gane touch-kicking the champ as Ngannou simply refused to pull the trigger. It was indeed one of those fights.

But then at about the 4:15 mark, Ngannou charged forward, scooped up Gane and body-slammed him to the ground, landing in perfect side control. Gane worked his way up to standing, only for Ngannou to hit another one at roughly the 2:20 mark.

"My ground game is now evolving," Ngannou told Rogan. "And I'm going to be on another level."

Gane started the fourth with more sticking and moving, only to see Ngannou land two more takedowns that led to nearly three combined minutes of control time.

Then came what looked to be a decisive fifth round. With Ngannou gassing hard, Gane still appeared hesitant to make the first move. About a minute into the action, Gane went for a takedown and got it.

Then, for the first time in the fight, Gane took a gamble, and it didn't go his way.

From top position, Gane reached for Ngannou's leg to try for a leglock submission. Ngannou reversed the position to get on top, and just like that, Gane's advantage in the sequence was gone. The rest of the round was lackluster, with Ngannou again managing the action with control time.

"It was a moment for me to make a statement and to remind people I'm the champ," Ngannou told Rogan. "You guys might sleep on me, you kind of forget about me."

That doesn't seem true. He's now 17-3 and hasn't lost since 2018. Before this fight, he had five straight knockouts. His work with supercoach Trevor Wittman—also the coach of welterweight and pound-for-pound kingpin Kamaru Usman, who was in the champ's corner Saturday—is paying dividends.

There's also the small matter of his contract. 

As many fans know, that was the last fight on his UFC contract, and another one seems far away if president Dana White's public statements are to be believed. Would Ngannou really box Tyson Fury? Could he possibly go to another MMA promotion? What role would the knee injury, a surgery or potential time off play in the negotiations process?

Ngannou addressed that issue after the fight, and while he stopped short of making any hard proclamations, he did hint that he might be wearing heavier gloves in the near future.

"Boxing is always in the back of my pocket. It is something that I must do before the end of my career," Ngannou said. "And right now I'm really looking toward any opportunity to do that. Because it's not like I have a lifetime here. I better start thinking about it." 

The 35-year-old is one in a small handful of fighters with a claim to be the world's most famous non-Conor McGregor fighter. If UFC brass wants to keep him—perhaps for an ultrawatt matchup with Jon Jones—they'll have to pony up. 

Saturday's win may not make as many highlight reels, but it sure had a lot of grit between its teeth. It cemented Ngannou as someone with the tenacity, smarts and heart to win when the main weapon isn't working. That's championship-level stuff, no matter what sport you're playing.