The situation between the UFC & Francis Ngannou seems to get even uglier

Dana White and Francis NgannouZuffa & UFC

Welp.

If you were one of the very few people who thought the situation between the UFC & Francis Ngannou couldn't get any uglier than it already is, you were very wrong!

In case you have not heard, the UFC and their current reigning Heavyweight champion have been having a lot of ongoing issues regarding contract negotiations.

This past weekend was UFC 270 held in Anaheim California where we saw Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou take on, and successfully defend his Heavyweight Title against interim Heavyweight Champion Ciryl Gane to now crown Ngannou as the undisputed heavyweight champ which also marked the last remaining fight on his current contract.

Because Francis is champion he is contractually obligated to remain with the company until the end of this year. This means he can either negotiate a new contract or sit out until the contract is up.

This now puts the UFC in a weird position.

UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou takes Ciryl Gane down with a huge takedown during their bout in UFC 270Zuffa & UFC

All throughout the leadup to the fight, we saw & heard Ngannou be very vocal on his demands if he were to sign a new contract with the company.

Which include

• Boxing clause for cross-promotion fights
• Get paid well more than 500k a fight
• The UFC to be a partner in the boxing clause

As we know the UFC has only once done a boxing cross-promotion fight in the past and that was the Mayweather vs Mcgregor fight which raked in millions on all sides.

And it now looks like Francis would like to get in on that kind of money.

To add fuel to the fire, Reigning Heavyweight boxing champion and superstar Tyson Fury and Francis have been going back and forth on Twitter calling each other out and both seem very willing to get the deal done.

Boxing Superstar and Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury & UFC Heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou verbally sparring on TwitterTwitter

The chances of the UFC being willing to cater to Francis's demands already seemed slim, but since Francis won the fight against Gane this past weekend it now all seems slimmer than a pin.

It all started literally right after the decision of the fight was announced as Francis as the winner, Dana White who is usually always the one inside the cage that puts the belt around the winner's waist was not in there and instead matchmaker Mick Maynard was seen inside the cage putting the belt around Ngannou's waist.

UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard putting the Heavyweight Championship belt around Ngannou's waist after UFC 270 boutZuffa & UFC

After that, Dana White was also not on hand for the traditional Post-Fight press conference that usually starts with him giving his thoughts on the event.

Now a few days since UFC 270 we saw Francis Ngannou appear on Ariel Helwani's MMA hour show for an interview where he dropped a few bombshells.

Of course, before going into these claims please remember this is all word of mouth and he said she said at this point and nothing is proven factual as of right now.

While on the MMA Hour Francis opened up on the situation and claimed that while he was getting dressed at the hotel before heading to the arena before the fight that he and his management team received an email by the UFC stating that they were threatening to sue Francis and his team for talking to Nakisa Bidarian about boxing opportunities.

Like myself, if you don't know who Bidarian is, He is the promotor for Youtube star and AMATURE boxer Jake Paul. Yes, I said AMATURE.

Then later in the interview, Francis reveals that before the fight, his head coach received a text message that had racist remarks from an unknown number with a Las Vegas area code. No tips or revelation as to who the texts came from.

I will not get into what was exactly quoted as being said as I do not report on things like that, I may bring it up in a situation like this, but decline to go too deep as it's not my style to speak on stuff like that.

Enough Hate, Spread the love!

But if you are interested in reading more on that or even seeing what was claimed to be said, you can read it here in an article by MMAweekly that covered that specific situation.

https://www.mmaweekly.com/francis-ngannous-manager-shares-racist-text-he-received-surrounding-ufc-270

Now back to the situation at hand, as of this moment Dana has not spoken on any of this but from the outside looking in, this very foggy situation doesn't seem like it's going to get clear anytime soon.

Ngannou's head coach Eric Nicksick recently stated that he believes the UFC and Ngannou will come to positive terms, Although Im not sure how much I truly believe we will see that happen at this point.

UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou being interviewed right after defending his championship belt at UFC 270Zuffa & UFC

How do you guys believe this will play out? Comment your thoughts below.

Hope you all enjoyed the read, take care!

- Sani Nabi