Francis Ngannou was almost cut.
It has been just about a week since Ngannou made his highly-anticipated return to mixed martial arts (MMA) at PFL Super Fights: “Battle of the Giants” when he clobbered Renan Ferreira unconscious in the first round from inside Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (watch highlights).
Up until today (Thurs. Oct. 24, 2024), Ngannou’s former boss, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO Dana White had not given his opinion on Ngannou’s brutal win.
And he still didn’t … but White did reveal that he almost cut “The Predator” after his second UFC loss.
“[Ngannou’s performance] was better than Donn Davis’, way better,” White told reporters during th Power Slap 9 post-fight press conference. “Listen, man, I’m going to tell you what I think about Francis: Francis is all about the money. Francis left because he knew if he fought Jon Jones and didn’t win, it would hurt his chances of making the money he wanted to make. But realistically, his deal was bigger here. His deal was bigger here if he stayed in the UFC. I think I told this story a million times. They can deny it all they want. Why the f—k would I lie? What do I care? It doesn’t matter to me one way or the other.”
“I was going to cut Francis when he lost two in a row,” White continued. “I was going to cut him. Somebody around here begged me not to do it. It wouldn’t have mattered to me one way or the other. There’s a much deeper story to this whole thing. He would’ve made more money if he would’ve stayed in the UFC. He didn’t want to fight Jon Jones. That’s a fact, my friend. We’re moving on.”
Ngannou’s second loss in UFC was against Derrick Lewis at UFC 226 in one of the worst fights in UFC history.
It is highly unlikely that White would have cut Ngannou, especially after he had just fought for the UFC Heavyweight championship a fight prior to Lewis; however, White did trash Ngannou following the UFC 226, saying his “ego is out of control.”
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