By Ronan P. McEvoy
UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou has decided to leave the UFC after being unable to come to terms with the company for his new contract.
Ngannou stated that in his contract he wanted a three-fight deal, no extension clause, and for all fighters on the roster to have health insurance. The negotiations started around December, when Ngannou’s contract expired, and after weeks of negotiations, the UFC and Dana White decided to release him from the company. Ngannou talked about his contract and his past with the UFC on “The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.”
“In that contract, I’m not free,” Ngannou said. “In that contract, I’m not an independent contractor. In that contract, I have no rights, I have no power. I hand over all the power to you guys, and I’ve seen in the past how you can utilize that power.”
The story was first announced at the UFC Fight Night: Strickland vs Imavov post fight conference by Dana White. White announced the company cut ties with Ngannou because of contract issues and stated that Ngannou wants to fight somewhere else to earn more money against lesser opponents. White also announced that Ngannou was stripped of the belt immediately and that Jon Jones will face Cyril Gane at UFC 285 for the vacant heavyweight championship.
Ngannou joined the UFC back in 2015 and had a 10-2 record in the company before becoming the Heavyweight champion. Ngannou had only one title defense against Cyril Gane at UFC 270 in early 2022. This was his last fight with the company.
With this news, the first question on people’s minds was what was next for Francis Ngannou.
Ngannou has plenty of options when it comes to where he wants to fight next. Ngannou has said in the past that he wants to get into boxing and fight some of the best in the world. Boxing heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has said multiple times in the past that he was down to fight Ngannou in the ring, and after Ngannou’s release; he immediately offered a fight.
Another potential boxing matchup is against former unified world heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua. While these two haven’t had the same war of words in the past, unlike with Fury, the matchup still seems interesting. Both fighters are similar heights, similar reach, and both have explosive knockout power.
While Ngannou’s power is mostly in his hands, that doesn’t mean that he would just stick to boxing. Other MMA promotions like Bellator, One, and PFL have announced interest in signing Ngannou to a large contract. PFL also has a million-dollar tournament which could persuade Ngannou into signing there. Nonetheless, Ngannou has plenty of options that he can explore which can earn him a lot of money and make him a bigger draw then he already is.
With Ngannou leaving the UFC, the announcement leaves some fans disappointed in fights we could have seen. A fight that fans have been begging for years now is Ngannou to fight Jon Jones for the heavyweight championship. And with his recent departure it is unknown if we will ever see these two in a fight in the future.