Does Dana White lie a lot? Given his constant dissing of Francis Ngannou and back peddling on his own opinion of the fighter after he left the organization over a pay dispute, it would be safe to assume so. Dana White is petty but don’t take any person’s word for it, take it from someone who’s worked closely with the UFC president, Ben Askren.
With Uncle Dana’s unpredictable behavior already a talking point, this revelation only highlights the unusual dynamics behind the scenes in the UFC.
During a conversation with UFC veteran Daniel Cormier, Askren revealed a side of Dana he had to deal with before joining the UFC and one that Ngannou feels compelled to respond to.
Askren claims that White has a weird personality where if he doesn’t get what he wants, he starts throwing a tantrum and “craps on people”.
The former UFC welterweight also asserted that since White is generally truthful, people believe what he says. Speaking from personal experience, he further added:
“I had to deal with many years of Dana telling lies about me that were really harmful to me that he had no reason or basis for doing. I wanted to fight the best.”
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Askren went on to add that he was close to joining the UFC in 2013 but that did not work out.
So White resorted to bad-mouthing Askren stating that he did not want to fight the best in the world until he ultimately joined the UFC in 2019.
While these claims could otherwise be attributed to a disgruntled employee or just a one-time thing, given that every week White says something about Ngannou that gets proven wrong by videos of himself from years ago, Askren seems bang on point.
Fortunately, Ngannou couldn’t care less.
Life moves on, Uncle Dana can’t
Ngannou isn’t losing any sleep over White’s opinions of him in 2024. Since parting ways with the UFC last year, Ngannou has thrived, becoming a PFL superstar and even stepping into the boxing ring against big names like Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
Despite their split, White continues to criticize Ngannou, claiming he left the UFC to avoid a potential loss to Jon Jones and that he missed out on a better deal.
None of this is true. Ngannou’s split with the UFC is well documented. He’s making a lot more money fighting for the PFL, and boxing world champions than he would have with $50k bonuses that White deems fit for fighters trying to mangle each other.
The story goes, that UFC actually offered Ngannou quite a bit of money to stay on, as he was the undisputed heavyweight champion at the time. But Ngannou refused to sell out and instead wanted his opponents to be paid a good sum of the dividends. For instance, Rennan Ferreira, despite losing to Ngannou made at least $2 million from the fight.
Ngannou wanted that guarantee for every one of his opponents. Unfortunately, the UFC didn’t want to do that.
Now, the second accusation that White has labeled against the Cameroonian has been about him being afraid to lose to Jon Jones. This again is not true, by White’s own admission a few years ago.
As a matter of fact, after Ngannou leveled Stipe Miocic, White himself had asserted that Jones better move to 185 lbs!
Dana White saying that Jon Jones should duck the Francis Ngannou fight and go down to 185 instead of heavyweight
— Elonov (@ElonovMMA) August 21, 2024
Ngannou isn’t really bothered though. Having had the tough year he’s had, with the loss of his son, all he wants to do is ask White to move on. He has claimed that White’s comments were an attempt to “save face,” as the UFC boss can’t handle seeing him succeed.
Ngannou clarified that he’s already made more money outside the UFC than he ever would have under White’s terms. He just wishes Uncle Dana would let it go. “I’m doing my thing,” Ngannou says, noting that he’s moved on—and thinks it’s time White did too.
