Off the back of his monumental signature to the PFL (Professional Fighters League), former undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou has revealed he felt pressured by ONE Championship CEO, Chatri Sityodtong, in his bid to attempt to lure his signing.
Ngannou, a former undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, was officially announced as the newest acquisition of the PFL yesterday, with the Batié native striking a ground-breaking deal with the Peter Murray-led promotion.
Expected to make his return to mixed martial arts competition next year in a planned PFL debut, Francis Ngannou, who has been granted the freely competed in boxing under his new contract – is earmarked to make his debut in the squared circle later this year.
Francis Ngannou reveals details of his failed talks with ONE Championship
Holding talks with ONE Championship CEO, Sityodtong ahead of the confirmation of his move to the PFL, Ngannou was touted as rejecting a guaranteed $20,000,000 payday from the promotion, before he then claimed that promoters were “two-faced”.
Revealing details of his sitdown with Sityodtong in Los Angeles, Ngannou claimed he felt pressured by the promotional leader.
“I think Chatri (Sityodtong) was just performing,” Francis Ngannou told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “I told him and Matt Hume that I got the best offer from PFl and I don’t think, I’m not going to do any negotiation with you guys. That was like back, six weeks before that. And he was like, ‘Oh, I can fly you to Singapore. I can fly to Camerron. I got this.’ He was all in. I was like, this is too much. I don’t know how to handle this.”
“How are you going to fly to Cameroon? What for? I just told the guy the situation and then he kept pushing. Then I sent it to my team. ‘I can’t handle this pressure from Chatri.’ Then he kept pushing, kept pushing. …So I have to seee, for respect. We had a talk, I respect the guy, Matter of fact, I love Chatri. Now I even question if that story is true. But I used to love that story.”