Francis Ngannou, the former UFC heavyweight champion of the world, recently opened up about his financial struggles and negotiations with the UFC on the Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru and Henry podcast.
Discussing his final fight purse with the UFC, the money he received and his debt to fellow UFC fighter and former UFC Welterweight Champion, Kamaru Usman, Ngannou reminisced on his days in the UFC, the petty scraps that went forth with Ngannou’s contract and the hike to stardom. But to fans’ surprise, Ngannou also opened up about UFC fighter pay and his troubles dealing with it.
Francis Ngannou reveals his debt to Kamaru Usman
In a conversation with Henry and Kamaru on the Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru and Henry podast, Francis Ngannou opened up about the infamous UFC contract that Francis turned down and then went on to become a free agent.
“I want to give you your flowers Francis, you know why? Because the UFC offered you $8 million dollars if you stay, but you held off that whole year, went out there as a free agent, fought Tyson Fury and you doubled that” said Henry Cejudo with regards to Francis’ decision to not sign with the UFC again.
“Kamaru knows a lot about the stuff that I turned down with the UFC. But even my last fight with the UFC, I got paid $600K after being offered $5 million.” Francis told Cejudo.
“And to be honest, I was broke. At that time, I owed Usman $200K” added Francis, to which Kamaru Usman expressed that he did not wish to talk much about the same on the podcast.
“I needed that money at that time to be able to sell what I want in order to make more” concluded Francis talking about the money he owed to Usman.
“I was broke. I owed Usman $200K.”
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) March 7, 2024
Francis Ngannou says he had to borrow money from Kamaru Usman while he was a champion in the UFC 🤯 pic.twitter.com/NpA46lo28Z
UFC’s attempt to censor Kamaru Usman’s support for Francis Ngannou
The UFC took a very petty approach with regards to handling Francis Ngannou’s contract termination and garnered a lot of criticism from combat sports fans around the world.
After completing the contractual obligations, Ngannou departed from the UFC under his own volition back in January of this year before inking a multi-fight deal with the PFL.
After having left on bitter terms with the promotion and Dana White himself (President of the UFC), grudges held against Francis seem to surface.
The UFC Embedded production team infamously blurred out a portion of a t-shirt worn by Kamaru Usman ahead of his fight in UFC 294, which promoted Ngannou’s boxing debut against Fury.
The UFC blurred out Kamaru Usman's shirt that seems to have Francis Ngannou's name on it during Embedded pic.twitter.com/tWLshImRQU
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) October 19, 2023
“I didn’t realize until after, but during an interview with UFC Embedded before my last fight, I saw tweets talking about how the crew blurred out the t-shirt!” said Usman on the Pound 4 Pound podcast.
Do you think that the Cameroonian ‘Predator’ made the right choice after leaving the promotion? Do you think Ngannou will put Joshua away tomorrow? Let us know your thoughts!
