In a shocking revelation Saturday night, UFC President Dana White confirmed that the promotion was unable to come to terms on a new contract with heavyweight Francis Ngannou, and will be releasing him outright.
“I’ve told you guys this before — if you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be,” White said. “I think Francis is in a place right now where he doesn’t want to take a lot of risk. He feels like he’s in a good position where he could fight lesser opponents and make more money. We’re going to let him do that, release him from his contract and give up our right to match.”
According to White, the UFC and Ngannou’s camp had been going back and forth on a new contract for the better part of the last two years. The UFC boss claims that the company offered the former heavyweight champion a contract that would have made him the highest paid heavyweight in the history of the company, ultimately the 36 year’s team turned it down.
In a corresponding move, White also announced that former Light Heavyweight Champion Jon “Bones” Jones had signed a new 8 fight contract with the promotion.
As a result, Jones will take on former interim heavyweight champion Cyril Gane of France for the now vacant belt on March 4th at UFC 285.
Widely considered one of the best pound for pound fighters of all time, Jones’ career has been defined as much by his actions outside of the octagon as what he’s been able to accomplish inside it.
His most recent brush with the law stemmed from an arrest in September of 2021 when the 35 year old was charged with misdemeanour domestic battery and injuring or tampering with a vehicle. Ultimately the domestic battery charge was dropped and Jones pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour destruction of property charge.
For Ngannou’s part, he’s long teased a crossover to boxing but had cited his UFC contract as a stumbling block in any potential negotiations. Now that he’s a free agent, it’s unclear whether he will sign with another promotion or begin that foray into the highly lucrative world of celebrity/mega-fight boxing matches.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: X2O. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.