Dana White is not impressed by Francis Ngannou’s deal. Photo: Mark J. Rebilas – USA TODAY Sports.
UFC president Dana White is not impressed by the PFL deal Francis Ngannou struck a few days back.
“Based on what I know about the deal, which is not much, it makes no sense to me,” White told the press at the recent UFC post-fight press conference.
“I mean, you’re going to pay a guy not to fight for a year, and it’s already been like 18 months – he’s fought three times in the last three years. It’s just not what we do here. The day that we released him, I knew exactly what was going to happen.”
“He wants to, you know, PFL’s going to pay this guy to train for a boxing match that may not even happen and that they might not even be involved in. How does that make any sense?”
The UFC president claimed that Ngannou is not interested in the tough fights in UFC, but rather faces easier opposition in PFL.
“Francis wants to take zero risks, he doesn’t want to take any chances, and he obviously didn’t want to take a chance against Jon Jones, and after we saw what happened with Ciryl Gane, I don’t blame him,” White said.
“I think the outcome would have been exactly the same, and I’m sure most of you do, and I think Francis does too. And the media makes it sound like I’m saying that he’s afraid of him. I don’t think that he’s afraid of anybody; it’s just that he doesn’t want to take any risk.”