The Cameroonian, holder of the heavyweight championship belt, has not renewed his contract with the UFC, revealed Dana White, the boss of the most powerful league in MMA, on the sidelines of an evening of fights on Saturday January 14 in Las Vegas.
“ We have been trying to find an agreement with Francis (Ngannou) for two years “, explained Dana White. “ He was offered a deal that would have made him the highest-paid heavyweight in the organization’s history. And he didn’t want to. He thinks he’s in a position to fight worse opponents for more money, we’ll let him do that. We’re going to release him from his contract ” he added.
Knee operated in January 2022, Ngannou, whose contract with the UFC came to an end at the end of 2022, had no longer fought for the organization since defending his title against the French Ciryl Gane, still in January 2022. Since then, the 36-year-old Cameroonian, who has 20 fights for 17 wins and 3 losses, had multiplied his desires elsewhere, not hiding his desire to fight in English boxing. Ngannou had captured the UFC heavyweight title in March 2021 by beating the American Stipe Miocic by KO, after a first failure in January 2018, still against Miocic.
With his departure from the UFC, the world heavyweight title is now vacant. Ciryl Gane will try to conquer it on March 4 in Las Vegas against the American Jon Jones, 35 years old and legend of the discipline. Jones, who for years dominated the UFC light heavyweight division where he has only two losses in 28 fights and is undefeated since 2009, challenged himself to move up the category.
(With AFP)