UFC Heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou plans to undergo ACL & MCL surgery in the coming weeks according to his manager Marquel Martin.
In the aftermath of his UFC 270 victory over Cyril Gane, the Cameroonian told fight fans he’d suffered the knee injury training for the match but didn’t want to pull out of the contest. Ngannou managed to score a unanimous decision victory over Gane, handing the Frenchman his first professional loss in the process.
According to Martin, Ngannou will travel back home to Cameroon for a series of promotional and business ventures, before returning stateside to undergo surgery. The procedure is expected to sideline the champion for approximately 9 months.
The revelation comes at a time where Ngannou finds himself in the midst of a bitter contract dispute between his camp and UFC president Dana White. Ngannou has made it publicly known that he felt disrespected by the organization in terms of his compensation for his past few fights.
In an attempt to play hardball, White previously created an interim championship bout at UFC 265 where he pitted Gane and Derrick Lewis against one another after Ngannou’s camp baulked at the timeline presented by the company to defend his belt. With his UFC contract now complete, the 35 year old is still tied to the organization via a “champions clause” in his contract whereby terms would be negotiated to defend his belt.
Ngannou has publicly toyed with the idea of setting up a boxing match with Tyson Fury which could net him upwards of a $30M payday. For reference, the heavyweight champion’s purse for UFC 270 was only $600K.
Following his victory, White elected not to put the belt on Ngannou which he ordinarily does for championship bouts, and then skipped the post fight presser. How news of the champ’s upcoming surgery and recovery timeline will affect contract negotiations remains to be seen.
For his part, Martin was quick to change the subject away from negotiations and back to Ngannou’s recovery process stating “Upon his return [from Cameroon], we plan on getting surgery and starting the recovery process so we can get him back to 100 percent as soon as possible. In the meantime, we hope we can find a peaceful resolution in these contract talks. We’d like to thank all the fans for their continued support and belief in Francis.”
The announcement once again puts the UFC heavyweight division in flux, as Ngannou’s victory unified the belts, but will now see the champion sidelined for the foreseeable future.