Ngannou Coach Says UFC Departure Wasn’t About The Money

A lot has been said about Ngannou turning down a contract that would have made him the highest paid heavyweight ever. But according to his coach, his issues weren’t with the number of zeros on the contract.

The UFC announced on Saturday that Francis Ngannou was being stripped of his heavyweight title and released by the promotion completely. And while we have heard UFC president Dana White’s take on the situation, we still haven’t heard Ngannou’s.

That’s because the former heavyweight champ has been traveling in Africa. He’ll be joining our sister-site MMA Fighting’s The MMA Hour show today (Tuesday January 17th) at 1PM EST to give a full account in his own words what happened that led to the departure. Until then, take a look at what his head coach at XTreme Couture, Erick Nicksick had to say about the situation.

“I’m an optimistic guy, I thought things would get done and get done the right way, but unfortunately they didn’t,” Nicksick told The Schmo in a new interview. “I know Francis is going to be onto bigger and better things and I’m proud of him. I’m happy for him. He stood his ground. He knew what he wanted and he didn’t budge on what he wanted so kudos to him.”

According to Nicksick, it wasn’t about the amount of money the UFC was offering Francis Ngannou. White had claimed their offer would have made “The Predator” the highest paid heavyweight in UFC history.

“The money was there. That’s not what moves him,” Nicksick said. “It wasn’t the money that was moving him, it was other things, other terms, some sticking points that he couldn’t waver on. So kudos to him. This is what he wanted and that’s why I love the guy.”

Over the last couple of years, Ngannou had been very vocal about various clauses in the UFC’s contract that he considered exploitative, especially when you consider UFC fighters aren’t considered employees but independent contractors.

“[Boxing] was definitely something that was a sticking point for him, that he wanted the opportunity to box,” Nicksick said. “I think the definition of ‘independent contractor’ and ‘employee’ was something he wasn’t comfortable with. He wanted the opportunity to … if someone came along, a higher bidder, he wanted to take that opportunity.”

Ngannou has also complained about how the UFC can effectively bench anyone on the roster, toll them so their contract never runs out, and generally make their lives very unpleasant if they don’t agree to whatever the UFC wants at any given time. All of these issues he wanted addressed in his new contract. The UFC, for their part, wasn’t about to open a Pandora’s box by making changes to half the standardized clauses in their contract that give them power over their fighters.

While a deal didn’t get reached, Eric Nicksick said Ngannou had spent the recent time back at XTreme Couture training for an MMA fight.

“When he got back in the gym and he was full healthy with the knee and he started working, he said to me, legit, ‘I love the fact that I can kick, I can wrestle, I can put a full MMA skill set together because I like that. This is what I miss the most about MMA.’” he said. “But now if he wants to go into boxing he’s going to focus on that one skillset. I think whoever comes to the table with the most amount of money, through whatever that he feels is right for him, if it’s MMA or boxing he’s gonna be ready for it.”

While Nicksick is clearly proud of his student Ngannou for sticking to his guns during negotiations, he admitted losing the Jones fight hurt.

“That part’s always going to bother me on the competitive side, because Jon Jones is the GOAT to me,” he said. “He’s No. 1 and I think Khabib is right behind him it’s No. 1 and No. 1B in my opinion. So the competitor in me, yes, I’m always going to wish that we had the opportunity to put a gameplan together to execute against who I think is the best ever. So that’s going to bug me, but in the end of the day, man, that opportunity might still be on the table later on down the line.”