UFC; Francis Ngannou; Fight fans; what have we done?

The last time I wrote an article on Francis Ngannou, it was before his fight with Cyril Gane at UFC 270. IT WAS SUCH A DIFFERENT TIME. Israel Adesanya was still a dominant champion. Kamaru Usman was still a dominant champion. Francis Ngannou vs Jon Jones was still the most anticipated fight in MMA. People even argued it was khabib-McGregor level of big. I wrote that article after he defended his title. The gist of it, that we the fans needed to help Francis Ngannou resign with the UFC as I believed he had the better negotiating position. It was such a long time ago.

I am writing this right after watching Dana White’s press conference post UFC Vegas 67. Well, we know now. Francis has officially gone off to try new things. Cyril Gane is about to fight Jon Jones at Heavyweight. The first embedded for UFC 283 is out. Leon Edwards vs Kamaru Usman has been announced to be co-mained by Gaethje vs Gamrot. Most MMA media outlets have started their 2023 cycle and (sorry to sound cliché but) the wheel has already started spinning.

This is not meant to be a lengthy article. If I knew how to organize polls I would. But my only question is, who wins in this scenario?

When I last wrote about Francis I made a few points. Firstly, I am a fan; a big fan of his. And I am a big fan of MMA. I can also say that I have maybe seen at most 10 live cards of events by other promotions in the past year. The UFC makes up for 80% of my MMA consumption. In terms of real followership, that goes up to like 95%. I said I would not be following Francis to the indies; or lesser promotions. Not out of spite. Not because I would not search for the replays on youtube. But because it is not available to me. And lets pretend that most of the fanbase is not like me. Lets pretend.

"I want to test my power against Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury."

- Francis Ngannou explaining that he needs the option to do boxing.

Secondly, I warned that he was being hung out to dry. That he was being used as an experiment. That he was the product of a harsh game. We hear he cut ties with his old management. We hear he negotiated for himself. We hear he insisted on a cross-over clause. We hear that he has been seen as too problematic to hang on to. We also heard Ngannou say the UFC remained his first choice and Dana say they tried a lot to keep him so its not for a lack of willingness. Which brings me to my third point.

Where are all the fans that wheeled him on? Where are all the fighters that said he needs to ‘get his’? where are all the business geniuses that said he is better off sitting out and negotiating because he had the UFC right where he wanted them? Where are all of us who will not pay his bills? Are you all going to ensure that he sees that mythical boxing figure that people kept pumping into the airwaves via comments and ‘shows of support’? I checked Tyson Fury’s net worth. It sits at $65million as of January 2023. That is after having marquee fights with klischko; Wilder I,II & III; Chisora where he was rumoured to have earned one of his highest purses ever. So if we do the math, that "$40million boxing payday" is more mythical than a unicorn sitting on the Iron Throne. In truth, that number is a lie. And somebody may need to tell Francis that now.

We all know close to what Broc Lesnar was getting paid by the UFC; and Dana confirms they offered him more than that. We all know what Jon Jones earns, and Francis was offered more. We all know from Francis himself that if he resigned before the fight with Gane he would have jumped up to at least $7million per fight. What we do not know is what happens next.

"We don’t know what’s up with his injury. We don’t know if he’s willing to take any risks anymore."

- Dana White immediately showing that he is no longer in the Francis Ngannou promotion business.

But allow me to guess. There is an exhibition match paid for by some middle-eastern bankroller. He makes a lot of money, but much less than we think. He looks like he shouldn’t do that anymore. The UFC will have to brush off rumours that they’re talking about bringing him back. And all that time, the UFC keeps turning out stars. Cause Francis was not the first Francis; he will not be the last. But this might be his last legitimate payday. And in the terrible and unfortunate event that he sustains another injury, will he have access to the UFC Performance Institute to rehab? Just like Francis’ reasons for not signing with the UFC were not merely a matter of zeros, neither were the real reasons he should have put pen to paper. That Wilder Fight can happen when he is 40; Fury can happen when he is 45 and the pay-days would not really change; hell they could’ve been boosted by the bigger name he would have become by then. But here we go.

I would say ‘Good luck Francis.’ I will also say ‘hats off to the UFC." (and shame on you Dana for moving on so quickly. He’s not old. He’s not damaged. He’s not scared. He’s just not your’s to promote anymore, but still)But most of all, after watching people like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Kamaru Usman, Israel Adesanya and even Islam Mackachev become multi-millionaires by winning and calling their shots within the orgamization, it baffles me that all this came down to "youre not Conor McGregor and so we cant let you go have a boxing match, spo best of luck." I will say, this is a damn shame. A damn shame.