Ngannou is clearly not impressed with the statement released by ONE Championship following a sitdown meeting in Los Angeles over the weekend.
Francis Ngannou is not impressed with ONE Championship’s Chatri Sityodtong after the CEO and founder seemingly threw him under the bus following a business meeting.
Ngannou and Sityodtong met over the weekend to discuss the possibility of “The Predator” fighting for ONE. Shortly after the sit down took place, Sityotdtong released a statement that left a bad taste in the former UFC Heavyweight champion’s mouth.
“He was asking for a seat at the board of directors, he was asking for him to determine his opponent’s pay,” Sityodtong said in a follow-up interview with Daily Star. “We offered him $20 million guaranteed, the money wasn’t enough, he wanted all of these other non-financial terms that didn’t make a lot of sense.”
Ngannou is a man of few words, responding on Twitter with a picture of “Two Face” from DC’s Batman comics.
”Some promoters, man,” he wrote with a laughing emoji.
Some promoters man pic.twitter.com/CF4WyXIzv9
— Francis Ngannou (@francis_ngannou) May 3, 2023
Ariel Helwani contacted Ngannou for comment following Sityodtong’s statement came out.
“Francis’ side of the story is a little bit different,” Helwani said on the latest episode of The MMA Hour. “Francis is very close to signing a new deal with another promotion. And according to Francis, he was very up front about this. And so they left the meeting on good terms, but both of them came to an understanding that because he had already kind of verbally committed to someone, more than likely he’s not going to ONE.”
Ngannou has been taking a lot of criticism online from fans questioning his decision to leave UFC. At this point we’ve heard from UFC, Bellator, BKFC and now ONE that “The Predator” is being too demanding during negotiations and asking for ridiculous things.
Ngannou’s couch fired back at someone who had suggested “The Predator” had walked away from a UFC deal that paid him $8 million per fight.
“It wasn’t 8 million PER fight,” XTreme Couture coach Eric Nicksick wrote on Twitter. “Had he lost to Jon, his pay would’ve significantly dropped. That was one of the hang ups in resigning, he had no protection if he lost to arguably the MMA GOAT. I think there’s a lot of misinformation being tossed around….”
It wasn’t 8 million PER fight. Had he lost to Jon, his pay would’ve significantly dropped. That was one of the hang ups in resigning, he had no protection if he lost to arguably the MMA GOAT. I think there’s a lot of misinformation being tossed around…. https://t.co/CA0jFwdS7Z
— Eric Nicksick (@Eric_XCMMA) May 3, 2023
That’s generally how all of UFC’s top contracts work: fighters earn big money … if they’re getting pay-per-view (PPV) points, and those only go to champions. Stumble or get screwed in some wacky referee or judging mishap and he or she is back down to base pay, which is often hovering around the $1 million area.
The top contender now for Ngannou is PFL, which has created a “super” fight league where select athletes make up to 50 percent of PPV proceeds. We’ll keep you posted on whether that comes together, or if PFL comes out with a similar statement about “The Predator” and his unreasonable demands.
For more ONE Championship-related news and notes click here.