Francis Ngannou has played down talks he will retire from fighting by outlining his five-year goal to "conquer everything".
UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou is currently recovering from a knee injury he sustained before his title defence against Ciryl Gane in January. 'The Predator' fought out of his contract with the title defence and is free to leave the promotion in December.
Yet to sign a new UFC deal, question marks have been raised over Ngannou's future in the promotion. Adding to that is the prospect of a potential 'hybrid-rules' fight with Tyson Fury, as Ngannou teased the exhibit-on clash after Fury's win against Dillian Whyte in April.
Responding to a fan who questioned his fighting future, Ngannou “I’m just getting started bro! I have at least five more years to conquer everything." He accompanied the tweet with the hashtag 'three kings', likely referring to himself and the two other African UFC champions, Israel Adesanya and Kamaru Usman.
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Ngannou tore his MCL and injured his ACL before fighting former sparring partner Gane. He underwent surgery in March and admitted the first weeks of recovery were debilitating, but is confident he will make a return to training in a few months.
"I'm not strong enough to [spar], I think I better just give it enough time to heal up at once, so I don't have to redo it," Ngannou said of his injury on his YouTube channel. "If I try to force it earlier, I think I might have to redo it, go over it again.
"So I better give it the time that it takes. I rest a lot, I'm not a pressure guy. I'll just relax, just know when to do what I have to do, and how to do it properly."
For the first time in his MMA career, Ngannou won a decision by outwrestling Gane in their fight. The UFC has offered him several new deals and the Cameroonian claims to have lost out on £5million by turning down the offers.
Ngannou wants a clause in his new contract that would allow him to compete in boxing. UFC boss White insists Ngannou's future in the promotion is not a "lost cause" and they will continue to try and negotiate a hew deal for the champion.
“It’s the same as ever, there’s no ‘lost cause,’” White told The Underground about his relationship with Ngannou. “It’s all business and we’ll see how it plays out. We got Francis right now with his knee, we’re waiting on that, gonna see how long that’s gonna be. [Jon] Jones and Stipe [Miocic] probably makes sense, either Vegas or New York.”
