Francis Ngannou has a brand new house, and a few alternative phrases for promoters who he feels talked out of flip about him.
On Tuesday, information broke that Ngannou’s extremely publicized MMA free company has come to an finish — the previous UFC heavyweight champion signed with the PFL. The signing comes after a few high-profile promoters had already publicly withdrawn themselves from the Ngannou sweepstakes, however in keeping with “The Predator,” that’s under no circumstances how issues went down. As an illustration, in April, BKFC President David Feldman mentioned that Ngannou was “asking for unrealistic cash,” however Ngannou says neither he nor his staff even spoke with BKFC.
“I simply assume he assumed that I’m so costly, clearly as a result of he needed to take a mortgage on his home to placed on a present, I believe he assumed that mortgage couldn’t pay me, as a result of I by no means spoke to him. My staff by no means spoke to him,” Ngannou advised Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “Once I noticed his remark, I used to be like, ‘The place is that this man coming from?’ Then I checked my telephone, I known as my staff, like, ‘Did anyone speak to this man that I’m not conscious of?’ And everybody … was like, ‘No, we haven’t talked with this man.’ So I don’t know the place this got here from. That’s why I didn’t speak about it. This man is only a joke.
“Sooner or later, he was selling his present, his occasion. He’s going to do something to get somewhat little bit of PR right here and there, something he can do. However I by no means talked to that man, we by no means requested him something, and he by no means even reached out. To not say we have been — we weren’t — however he by no means even reached out, so he didn’t know if we have been . That’s why I say some promoters on the market, two-faced. Loopy stuff.”
Feldman wasn’t the one promoter to attract Ngannou’s ire.
Earlier this month, ONE Championship Chairman Chatri Sityodtong mentioned that his promotion in the end determined to not submit a last supply to Ngannou as a result of “a scarcity of alignment” on non-financial issues. However once more, Ngannou says that’s not how issues truly occurred, insisting that his conferences with ONE Championship got here after he had already determined he could be shifting ahead with the PFL.
“I believe Chatri was simply performing,” Ngannou mentioned. “… I advised him and Matt Hume that I acquired the most effective supply PFL and I don’t assume, I’m not going to do any negotiation with you guys. That was like again, six weeks earlier than that. And he was like, ‘Oh, I can fly you to Singapore, I can fly to Cameroon! I acquired this!’ He was all in. I used to be like, that is an excessive amount of. I don’t know learn how to deal with this. How are you going to fly to Cameroon? What for? I simply advised the man the state of affairs after which he stored pushing. Then I despatched it to my staff, ‘I can’t deal with this strain from Chatri.’ Then he stored pushing, stored pushing. … So I’ve to see him, for respect. We had a chat, I respect the man. Matter of reality, I like Chatri. Earlier than this, I used to be like, I like this man, I like his story. Now I even query if that story is true. However I used to like that story.
“So we met in L.A. and I used to be simply upfront earlier than something began. ‘Pay attention, that is the factor. I’ve advised you this. I’m favoring PFL proper now.’ Then he was like, ‘Why did you get me right here?’ I’m like, ‘To pay attention. Initially, I respect you. And even when I signal with PFL, sometime comes that you just say, I need to meet you, Francis. You didn’t say that you just need to meet me on enterprise. You have been with my staff, speaking enterprise, and then you definately mentioned you need to meet me. So sounds prefer it’s not enterprise anymore, proper?’
“So then he begins to indicate me all these things, screenshots — I believe he confirmed me 13 screenshots — all these statistics how ONE FC is the second-most seen within the sport. He has extra views on YouTube than Premiere League, than NFL, than NBA,” Ngannou continued. “He has quite a lot of these. I’m like, maintain on a minute. Anyway, that was the entire assembly. Sooner or later I used to be like, OK, it’s good, I respect this man, and I took this assembly, I don’t need to be impolite, however I used to be simply popping out of an 11-hour flight and I had one other flight to take to return house. I believed it could be like a one-hour [meeting], and I discover myself over two hours. I’ve to drink three or 4 cups of espresso, listening to all these statistics, how ONE FC is in Asia, Asia is 4.6 billion folks, they’re going to do that, they confirmed me how ONE FC goes to blow up, I’m going to be like Nelson Mandela. Bro, it was a hell of a efficiency. I applaud Chatri for his efficiency.”
And the “efficiency” didn’t cease there. After Sityodtong’s pitch seemingly fell on deaf ears, Ngannou says the promoter then requested him what he might do to alter his thoughts, and that’s when Ngannou believes Sityodtong lastly acquired the image. Shortly afterward, that’s when the Sityodtong made his assertion, which irked “The Baddest Man on the Planet” somewhat bit, even when it was nonetheless a greater state of affairs than the one with Feldman.
“I used to be respectful. … You have got a man you admire and was speaking, regardless that you weren’t in, you have been listening,” Ngannou mentioned. “I used to be listening, I gave the time. … We talked. Good. Then subsequent day, Andrew despatched me a display shot of ONE FC determined to withdraw their supply. I’m like, which supply are you speaking about? The supply wasn’t taken in consideration. You possibly can’t withdraw a proposal that wasn’t taken. ‘Not financially associated, I simply didn’t really feel the power.’ Actually? You sit there and communicate for 3 hours, and also you didn’t really feel the power? You could possibly have minimize that assembly at any time.
“I do know that on the finish of the day, I’m going to come back out and I’m going to name him out if he does one thing in that regard. If he lied, I’m going to name him out alongside the way in which. That’s why the subsequent day I began seeing, he switched on his personal. It went from ‘withdraw’ to ‘Francis was asking an excessive amount of.’ How do you withdraw a deal that anyone was asking an excessive amount of? Which one is it? Which one is the reality? It could possibly’t be each collectively.
“I noticed that and that’s after I thought, ‘Oh, this man’s a performer.’ That’s after I put out the tweet, ‘A few of these promoters on the market, they’re two-faced.’ However at the least for Chatri, I spoke with him. I can’t deny that. I spoke with him, I met him in particular person, we exchanged textual content messages, however this man David Feldman, I don’t know that man.”
Now, Ngannou doesn’t need to hassle with both of them. The PFL’s latest signee is concentrating on a return to the cage in 2024, along with his sights nonetheless set on boxing someday later this 12 months. And within the meantime, all these folks, promoters and followers, who had one thing unhealthy to say about him throughout his free company, Ngannou has one factor to say to them.
“Some folks is likely to be ready for me to lose,” Ngannou concluded. “All I can say is that I’m sorry for them. I solely have tissues for them to wipe their tears, as a result of I’m profitable.”
