UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou is in the middle of an ugly breakup with the word’s largest mixed martial arts fight promotion.
“The Predator” defended his title for the first time in the UFC 270 main event against previously unbeaten interim champion Ciryl Gane. The title unification bout was Ngannou’s final fight on his UFC contract. The fight promotion and Ngannou haven’t been able to come to an agreement, and Ngannou plans to sit out the remainder of 2022 and become a free agent.
Heading into the fight with Gane, Ngannou alleges that the UFC tried to distract him from the fight with contract offers, and a notification to his agent of a lawsuit the day of the event.
“I know most of this stuff was all about strategy to distract me,” Ngannou said during an appearance on The MMA Hour. “They’re no fool. They know that if Francis is good in his mind, he’s a potential danger for everybody out there.”
“They want to take your mind out of it, out of the most important stuff, and like distract you with all these things. I’m like, you’re not getting into me with this.”
Francis Ngannou’s manager shares racist text he received surrounding UFC 270
According to Ngannou, his agent, Marquel Martin, received an email from the UFC threatening a lawsuit for discussing Ngannou’s potential boxing future with Jake Paul‘s business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, hours before the title fight with Gane.
While getting prepared to make his way to the Honda Center on Saturday, Ngannou learned of the email from Martin.
“They told me they just received an email from the UFC saying they’re going to sue him (Martin) for talking with this guy, Nakisa,” Ngannou said.
“I don’t know him (Bidarian). I couldn’t recognize him if you put him in front to me. And secondly, he’s not the promoter,” Ngannou said. It’s not like I can’t have a dialogue with people about boxing. I talk about boxing all the time.”
