From an entertainment standpoint, UFC 270 was a tremendous success. There was a good blend of first round knockouts and submissions, and back and forth fights that went the distance. From Dana White’s perspective, the night couldn’t have gone much worse once the championship fights began.
In the Co-Main event fans got to see the trilogy bout between Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno. In what was already a watered down flyweight division, the contest marked the 3rd consecutive fight between the two.
The UFC had high hopes for the 28 year old Moreno, who had been getting a massive marketing push from the organization of late. Dana and Co. were hoping to turn Moreno into the UFC’s version of Canelo Alvarez, and inject a healthy dose of future PPV buys from Mexico into the struggling flyweight division.
Unfortunately for White, that’s not what played out inside the octagon. Figueiredo fought a much more controlled fight this time around and scored a unanimous decision victory from the judges 48-47 on all three cards.
The win now makes Moreno and Figueiredo 1-1-1 against each other dating back to December 2020. While no one is doubting that the two are clearly evenly matched, it’s not a great look for the 125lb division to have the same two fighters play hot potato with the belt while the rest of the weight class rots.
In a perfect world for the UFC, Moreno would have won, and the organization could have set up a PPV card in Mexico City where he would defend his title against Askar Askarov (arguably the division’s only other viable contender at this point). Instead, it may be Figueiredo entering the octagon in Moreno’s native country for a 4th consecutive bout.
No fighters have ever fought 4 times against one another in the UFC, let alone 4 times in a row, but Figueiredo didn’t hesitate to ask for the match in his post fight interview. “I’m praying for a fourth fight against Brandon in Mexico,” said the Brazilian. An idea that would have been scoffed at had Moreno won, but now seems like a necessity given the results of their last 3 bouts.
While the Flyweight Title fight certainly muddied the waters for the organization, the results of the evening’s main event completely derailed the UFC’s plans for future matches. Francis Ngannou won a unanimous decision victory over former training partner Cyril Gane to retain his heavyweight championship.
Making the victory that much more impressive was how Ngannou used his wrestling skills to secure the win as opposed to his prolific punching power. The champ also revealed afterwards that he’d torn his MCL and injured his ACL in training camp and had considered pulling out of the fight altogether.
Much had been made leading up to the fight about Ngannou’s uncertain future with the UFC. His current contract is now technically up, though there exists a “champions clause” whereby he’s not fully released quite yet. The Cameroonian champion hasn’t been shy in recent interviews about how he feels disrespected by the company and his lack of compensation for what is supposed to be one the UFC’s marquee weight classes.
With multiple business, and charitable ventures currently in the works, as well as a rumoured boxing match with Tyson Fury in the future, Ngannou has a bevy of options ahead of him, not all of which involve Dana White or the UFC. The heavyweight champion is far from the first fighter to be at odds over a contract with Dana, however he’s certainly the most prominent one at the moment.
Ngannou recently quipped “It’s not simply money. Obviously, money is a part of it, but it’s also the term of the contract, that I don’t agree with it. I don’t feel like it’s fair, I don’t feel like I’m a free man, I don’t feel like I have been treated good. It’s unfortunate that I have to be in this position to be able to do that, to say that, but I think it’s something that everybody should at least have a right to claim what’s best for him, because at the end of the day, we put a lot in this job, we take a lot in our body to make it happen. So at least we can have a fair and square deal.”
Once again from a business standpoint, Dana likely would have preferred to see a much different outcome in the main event. Had Gane won, Dana could have let Ngannou walk and waited until his camp approached the UFC to restart negotiations in the future once Francis scratched a few of his extracurricular itches.
However now Ngannou’s camp holds all the bargaining power. If Dana wants him to get back into the octagon he’s going to have to concede either terms or figures in the company’s next deal with the champion.
Many keen eyed observers noticed that it was matchmaker Mick Maynard who put the belt around Ngannou’s waist after his victory and not White. Dana then skipped the post fight press conference for undisclosed reasons, a rarity on both fronts given the high profile nature of UFC 270.
So while last night’s card may have kicked off the year in style for fight fans, on the surface it appears as though Dana White may not have been overly thrilled with how things played out in Anaheim, CA.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner