Dana White says he once wanted to cut Francis Ngannou, who smelled like sour grapes

Why has Dana White now decided to reveal that he once wanted to ban Francis Ngannou from the promotion after the now lineal heavyweight champion lost his first two fights of 2018?

🚨 Dana White lashes out at Francis Ngannou, saying he wanted to cut him after Derrick Lewis fight🤔

▪️“I wanted to cancel Francis when he lost two in a row. I wanted to cut it. Someone here asked me not to do it. So I wouldn’t have cared either way… pic.twitter.com/krMDa2eYRj

– AFeldmanMMA (@afeldMMA) October 24, 2024

Francis Ngannou was committed to the UFC contract structure for years. Despite being the top heavyweight in the world and lineal champion as of 2021, Ngannou only received a salary of $600,000 per fight and his contract was artificially extended simply because he became champion.

Despite being the scariest heavyweight in the world for years and the biggest puncher the sport has ever seen, he didn’t get a raise for dethroning the GOAT, Stipe Miocic, in 2021.

Francis became disillusioned with the UFC and began publicly demanding a change to their contracts, specifically insisting that he would not sign a new contract if he could not box like Conor McGregor.

For many fighters, like Kamaru Usman and Dricus du Plessis, going into boxing is a pipe dream. They are big names in MMA, but not at this level. However, Francis had men like Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder publicly interested in fighting him.

Francis “The Predator” Ngannou became one of the biggest things in the world. In the UFC, he appeared in a Fast & Furious movie, won an ESPY Award, inspired millions with the harrowing story of his journey from Cameroon to France to become a fighter, and became even more famous on major platforms recognized famous athletes and celebrities of the world.

So as Francis waited for the contract, he left the UFC and entered a rare big-name free agency, signing with rival PFL for more than the UFC was offering, and getting Anthony Joshua and still two of the biggest names in boxing as opponents win Tyson Fury. PFL also made him part owner and gave him control of their UFC Africa operation, following in the footsteps of UFC Europe and UFC MENA.

Ngannou also found success, earning more in his fight against Tyson Fury than he did in his entire mixed martial arts career. He probably deserved the decision to go his own way in this fight and achieve something that no other MMA fighter could when he knocked down the world boxing champion. He turned that into a $20 million payday to face Anthony Joshua.

Although he lost badly in that second boxing match, at least he will make more than he deserves with the UFC and has prepared his family for life.

Is it any wonder Dana White now chooses to slander him?

Although the fight before and after had a sombre atmosphere due to the recent heavy loss of Ngannou’s young son, White decides to try again to take the man down just because he made money without him.

The UFC had the Jon Jones fight under control, but didn’t want to pay the LHW GOAT Jones his asking price. Then, after two years, Ngannou’s contract expired and he was able to move on and earn historic sums for him.

He did what most MMA fighters only dream of: in a sport where fighters only receive 13-14.5% of the top promotion’s coffers, he achieved his goal, kept his sanity and secured generational wealth in the future.

If business practices change to be more financially beneficial for fighters, perhaps we will see more incredible athletes like Ngannou opt for it rather than higher paying sports like NFL, NBA, MLB or European/Asian soccer.

If fighters are proportionally rewarded for the abuse their bodies endure, then the sport of mixed martial arts will have the impact that these sports have, and the best will truly fight the best, instead of incredible fights disappearing, like the triad of fights that have – but probably will never happen – between Francis Ngannou, Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall.