Francis Ngannou has been a force of behemothic proportions since he entered the UFC in 2015. Like many predicted, the Cameroonian rose to the top of the heavyweight division and is now the UFC Champion. However, this does not mean that he is in Dana White’s Good books. In fact, Ngannou’s relations with UFC have steadily soured for a long time now. Fans believe that the bone of contention is ‘The Predator” wanting to initiate contract renegotiations as soon as he won the title. However, it appears that his feud with Dana White began much earlier.
In a recent video posted on his official YouTube channel, Francis Ngannou recalled Dana White’s comments regarding his ego post UFC 220. This he claimed is what sparked their issues that would just get messier over time.
How Did the Dana White vs Francis Ngannou Problem Build Up?
UFC and Ngannou fans generally understand that their disagreement began at UFC 260 at Ngannou vs Miocic II for the heavyweight title. However, the truth is that Dana White and Ngannou dislike each other from Ngannou’s first unsuccessful fight against Miocic at UFC 220.
After the event, Dana White said the following in a presser:
“Everybody was talking about him. We all thought he was going to be the next guy. I think his ego ran away with him at the time. I can tell you his ego ran away with him. Ego is what hurt Francis Ngannou.”
Ngannou credited the following statement as the beginning of his beef with UFC.
“This situation with the UFC started a long time ago, way longer than people realized,” he said.
Ngannou’s manager Marquel Martin claimed that there must have been a misunderstanding between Ngannou and UFC after his fight with Stipe Miocic.
He further explained that ‘The Predator” was like a golden child to UFC and this came with a certain set of expectations as a precursor to his discord with the UFC.
Francis Ngannou’s Many Shades
Ngannou further stated that he was silent and the UFC tried to control the narrative, along with people’s perspectives and opinion. This made him feel like they were painting him as the bad guy while from his perspective he was just trying to get what was best for him.
While the situation has somewhat mended between Ngannou and the UFC after his win over Cyril Gane, they are not quite on song together yet.
The UFC heavyweight champion was also involved with discussing UFC fighter’s pay with Jake Paul. This possibly may not have rubbed UFC and Dana White the right way. However, there has been no talk on it as of now.
Ngannou is set to return to the UFC mid next year.
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