The relationship between Francis Ngannou and UFC CEO Dana White has hit an all-time low. White hurled petty insults at Ngannou while responding to the former UFC heavyweight and reigning PFL superfight champion’s recent critiques.
“The guy can’t stand me,” Ngannou told Sirius XM’s “Fight Nation” on Friday. “I don’t know what his problem is. He can make everything up. That is his problem. I think he needs to make peace with himself because this situation is kind of weird.”
For as much as White and Ngannou disagree, they can find common ground in Ngannou’s claims that White dislikes him. The UFC CEO went to new lows while talking about Ngannou at the UFC 308 post-fight press conference, accusing the African-born champion of using a language barrier to paint himself in a positive light.
“Francis isn’t a good guy. He plays a good guy. ‘Duh, duh I don’t understand the language,’ so he seems like he’s a nice guy. He’s not,” White said. “And he’s just not a guy that I wanted to be in business with. We’ll never be in business together. We don’t like each other.”
Both sides have previously confirmed that Ngannou was offered a new UFC contract before he walked away from the promotion. White’s claim that he didn’t want to be in business with Ngannou contradicted several past statements the UFC CEO made. White previously accused Ngannou of walking away from a new deal with the promotion in 2023 because he’s greedy and fears UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones and more. White once suggested Ngannou would have made more money staying with the promotion, something Ngannou refuted in an interview with CBS Sports.
“I think Dana’s trying to make things up to buy good faith in the position he has lost,” Ngannou said. “Dana has lost in this situation… and he cannot stand it. Bro, I won everything: I left. It’s been almost two years, and the guy is still out there, he can’t live without hounding me. Regardless of everything that happened, I’m not about him.”
Ngannou parlayed his status as lineal UFC heavyweight champion, a belt he vacated upon his UFC exit, into box office boxing matches against former unified heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. Most recently, Ngannou returned to mixed martial arts, defeating Renan Ferreira in the Professional Fighters League’s Oct. 19 pay-per-view.
During Friday’s interview, Ngannou accused UFC of owing him money for fights against Stipe Miocic and Ciryl Gane.
“Which money is he talking about? The money that he owes me?” Ngannou said. “Remember, all of this ended with [them] saying, ‘Oh, we’ll backpay you from the money that we owe you for the Stipe [Miocic] and Ciryl Gane fight,’ all of that. They never back paid me. Now I have made more money than I have ever made in the UFC — I would say twice the money that I could have ever made in my entire UFC career if I had continued in the UFC.
“Either way, if I had made less money, if I’m not making enough money that I could’ve made in the UFC, that’s my problem. Why is he so pissed about me not making that much money? Like, C’mon, man! Live your life.”
White volleyed back at Ngannou at Saturday’s press conference, accusing him of doing something vague before Ngannou’s first fight with Miocic in January 2018. White taunted Ngannou by suggesting the fighter owes him money for his notoriously dull fight with Derrick Lewis that same year.
“He pulled some shit before the first Stipe fight and then Stipe beat the shit out of him, a great night,” White said. “He actually owes me money cause we had to watch that fight with him and ‘The Black Beast.’ He should actually pay me back for that fight.
“Trust me, I don’t think about Francis that much. The only person praying for his demise is probably the PFL cause they signed a shitty contract with a guy that doesn’t deliver any numbers in ticket sales or pay-per-views.
White and Ngannou’s deteriorating relationship likely won’t help book the long-desired Jones vs. Ngannou fight. While possible, the fight would require UFC and PFL to co-promote.
“The only guy standing in the way of that fight is Dana White,” Ngannou said. “I want the Jon Jones fight. I’m down for the fight. Jones is down for the fight. But this is a new narrative. I was down for a Jon Jones fight three years ago and I am down for it now.”
