UFC president Dana White provides a positive update on Francis Ngannou’s contract situation.
At least based on recent reports, the Dana White-Francis Ngannou saga seems to be far from over. This week, Ngannou’s manager Marquel Martin went on record claiming that the UFC has been silent about the heavyweight champ’s contract status for the last six months.
UFC president Dana White recently made an appearance on Teddy Atlas’ show to set things straight. According to him, the conversation with “The Predator” was “good,” to say the least.
“Francis and I bumped into each other the other night at dinner. And we had a good talk. And he’s not out of contract if he wins that fight. I think he’s got one more fight with us after that,” White said.
“I say it all the time: this sport’s fun for me. I love doing this. And contrary to the narrative out there, we’ve made a lot of people very wealthy. And if you don’t wanna be here, if this is not where you wanna be, well, that’s not fun for you and it’s definitely not fun for me, either.
“These are all grown men and women and everybody has to make their own decisions in life and go down their own paths. But I think that Francis and I had a good conversation.”
White, however, isn’t putting all the blame on Ngannou for these recent issues.
“I think Francis has been misguided, too, by some people that aren’t very bright. That doesn’t help, either, when you got some people behind you that have no f—ng clue what they’re talking about. It doesn’t help your situation.”
White is again referring to Ngannou’s management, with whom he got in a heated conversation back in June when the interim title fight booking between Derrick Lewis and Ciryl Gane was announced.
As for Ngannou, he will unify the heavyweight title with Gane at UFC 270 on January 22 in Anaheim, California.