Francis Ngannou Left UFC, Citing Desire for Freedom and Greater Financial Opportunities

The news of the former UFC champ, Francis Ngannou’s exit from the promotion, shook the UFC community at the beginning of 2023. Several fighters have quit the promotion to date. But Ngannou’s case was a lot different as he left while holding onto the divisional championship. ‘The Predator’ has spoken about the reasons behind his departure from the UFC multiple times to date. But a ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ episode contains a lot of information about Ngannou’s UFC exit.

The UFC CEO, Dana White, may have agreed to Ngannou’s monetary demands during their failed negotiations. But the Cameroonian’s words in the ‘JRE’ episode revealed that the UFC never paid him enough during his tenure in the promotion. Ngannou said:

“I know how much I was making, and sometimes it wasn’t fun”

But it wasn’t only the monetary issues that had Ngannou quitting the UFC. In Ariel Helwani’s noted podcast, ‘The MMA Hour’, the Cameroonian also detailed how the UFC contract didn’t provide him with any “freedom”.

Besides all of this, Ngannou also detailed how the UFC twisted the arms of its fighters to prevent them from becoming free agents. After knowing about all of this, several fans may say that there are enough reasons behind the 1200 fighters choosing to sue the UFC with an antitrust lawsuit.

Did Francis Ngannou also experience the UFC’s dirty tactics to retain its fighters?

Despite being a UFC champion, ‘The Predator’ also had to go through the UFC’s dirty tactics to keep their fighters in the organization. He also detailed the UFC’s game in an appearance on the famed American sportswriter, Dan Le Batard’s talk show.

The UFC authorities generally start the negotiations of a fighter’s contract renewal with one fight left in the present one. If the fighter doesn’t agree to their terms, they would keep delaying his last fight, which would get would get him frustrated and finally re-sign with the UFC on Dana White and Co.’s terms.

Well, Ngannou’s current stature says that he was correct in choosing to leave the UFC. It’s quite apparent that he would have never gained fame and money in the sport of boxing if he decided to continue with the UFC. His fans will be eager to watch him get his hand raised for the first time in his pro-boxing career on 8 March.