Francis Ngannou defeated Stipe Miocic for the UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 260 earlier in the year. After that, a lot of drama ensued as he never got to fight Jon Jones. It seems Ngannou is unhappy working in the UFC from the looks of it.
In the main event of UFC 270, Francis Ngannou defended his UFC Heavyweight Championship against Ciryl Gane. Ngannou employed a new strategy to his game as he used a lot of grappling in his five-round fight against Gane. The fight ended in a unanimous decision win for Ngannou via scores of 48-47, 48-47 49-46 in the pay-per-view headliner.
Francis Ngannou then revealed that he did not feel like a free man whatsoever in the UFC. While speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Francis Ngannou gave details about his ongoing contract dispute with the UFC and revealed how much money he apparently lost in his fight to get a better contract with the UFC.
“I left a lot more on the table. Overall, I’ve been leaving a lot of money on the table, Ariel, even before the Stipe fight. By now, I might be down at least $7 million that I left on the table. I’m still happy with my $600,000 because I still fight for what I stand for. And this is the thing, freedom doesn’t work with money. You give up one for one, whether you want freedom or whether you want money. You give up one to gain one.”
Tito Ortiz also recently hoped that Francis Ngannou is not erased from UFC history. Ngannou’s current contract with the UFC will expire in December of this year and it is not known whether he will re-sign with the company at this point in time either.