Francis Ngannou has accussed the UFC of playing "dirty games" after he signed with rival promotion PFL.
'The Predator' elected to vacate his UFC heavyweight title and quit the promotion after fresh contract talks ended without a new deal in place. A key factor in Ngannou's dispute was his financial reward for fights, which appeared to stall negotiations for any original title showdown with Jon Jones, who has since been crowned champion in the Cameroon star's absence.
Ngannou left the UFC in pursuit of boxing clashes, but has also signed with MMA promotion PFL as he looks to continue his career in the cage. And in a fresh outburst explaining his decision to leave the UFC, Ngannou has claimed that in fact he wasn't just after more money.
“What I was asking at first is can I have a fight? I had an eight-fight contract and I wanted to fulfil that contract,” Ngannou said on the Dan Le Batard Show when discussing his departure. "But, they wouldn’t allow me because I wasn’t going to sign another contract. They knew if I fulfilled that contract I am automatically free.
"They used some dirty game there to freeze me out, they knew how much I was getting which wasn’t much at all, just a few pennies, so they knew to make a living out of it, I had to come back and accept those contracts. That was after the Junior dos Santos contract which was in June of 2019. Then, it was almost one year after that I had a fight.
"My contract was exclusive so I didn’t have any other revenue and they were holding me captive to that. They were trying to act like I wanted more money, I didn’t want more money. If it was about more money I would have signed the contract because it was more money and more and more and more by the time I was at the end. I was earning $100,000, $120,000 per-fight."
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Ngannou made his desire to leave the promotion publi, having even suggested he requested details to be added to his contract to improve conditions for other fighters. However it was not to be and Ngannou will now start a new chapter in his career having reigned as division king in his previous time in the UFC.
Despite his criticism of negotiations, UFC president Dana White has questioned his move to the PFL insisting he did everything possible to keep him. “PFL is 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?” White said.
“Francis could’ve done a deal here. Hunter [Campbell] threw the kitchen sink at that guy. Hunter went to more dinners with Francis Ngannou and did everything in his power to try to get this fight done."
