Francis Ngannou explains some of the grievances he has with the UFC at this time.
It is no secret that heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and the UFC have not been seeing eye to eye recently. The ongoing contract negotiations have been an issue for Ngannou lately and have led to an uncertain future with the organization. Since winning the UFC heavyweight title, Ngannou has been asking for a new contract from the UFC without much headway. Now Ngannou is giving a little more insight into the happenings between himself and the UFC brass and where he would like things to end up when all is said and done.
Ngannou won the heavyweight title back in March of 2021. Following the win was when the negotiations began and then stalled. The UFC wanted Ngannou to face Jon Jones, but both Jones and Ngannou had contract issues, the UFC later set up an interim title and Ngannou was put on the back burner. He did eventually fight and unified the title with a win over Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 and has been out with injury since.
Ngannou has been talking about his desire to move to boxing. He has mentioned that he would like that freedom added to his contract. He now claims that it is a non-starter for him, and at this time he has not heard any update from the UFC in this regard.
“My contract status right now is the same. I haven’t received any offer. So it’s stayed the same. I hope like in the next three months, two to three months we get to deal with that. To solve that,” he said on the MMA on Sirus XM podcast.
"[The UFC] is getting stronger and [the fighters] have no power."
Amid contract negotiations, UFC HW Champion @francis_ngannou discusses potential stumbling blocks between him & the promotion.
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— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) September 16, 2022
Francis Ngannou wants the UFC to pay fighters better and allow sponsorships again
Ngannou would also like to see some changes made within the UFC that can benefit all fighters on the roster. He has been a vocal advocate for a rise in fighter pay and now is asking for the UFC to allow fighters to showcase their sponsorships on their fight kits. The UFC did away with individual sponsorships when they brought in Reebok to make the unified fight kits. At the time many fighters were upset by this and many claimed to have lost out on a lot of money in deals.
“I was getting frustrated at some point, why? Because I feel unprotected which is exactly the situation that we all fighters are into,” he said. “You know, I would like for the UFC to consider the opposition in a lot of things now regarding to fighters, sponsorship, I think fighters should also have a right to put a sponsorship on your shirt, not just for the company to make money out of it.”
Ngannou recently stated that he lost out on one million dollars when the UFC brought in a crypto sponsor, a deal with Crypto.com which did not directly benefit the fighters themselves.
“I feel like over the time the UFC fighter, we are losing a lot of power. The company is getting big, getting stronger, and we have no power,” he said.
Ngannou says he is not in a rush to get a deal done and can wait for two or three more months.
