INTURUM BELTZ
This is stupid. He just won the belt at the end of March, hardly inactive compared to other champs. The fact is the majority of the fans want to see Francis and Jones, they both asked to get paid more money, the UFC didn’t want to budge, and now we get a lousy interim belt for a fight almost nobody wants to see. All the while, the UFC has raised the cost of PPVs to $70. As much as I don’t want to see athletes run the show, the ultimate losers here are the fans. Again.
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He’s refusing to fight the clear #1 contender.
I agree with posters above, strip him and have the #1 contender fight for the belt.
I honestly think Gane is probably the best HW in the world right now anyways. Would love to see either Ngannou or Lewis prove me wrong, as they’re both much more likeable, much more interesting fighters to watch.
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I heard he was taking end of September which is 6 months. Not that long.
BUT, it’s not about time here. If you refuse to fight the top contender and whine about money and Jones instead then it’s time to move on. Nip that shit in the bud.
Maybe defend against an actual contender at least once before you start demanding super fights.
Jan fighting Izzy was weird when it happened.
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Interim belts are a joke and the ufc NEVER uses them properly
That being said this is what happens when you come out publicly and bitch about your pay like Francis did
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I guess I shouldn’t want Gane to lose. He seems like such a nice dude. I just am just a fan of Lewis. He is a good dude with what seems to be an entertaining side.
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What makes Lewis a good dude in your mind?
For me the things hes done for his community. Also he’s hilarious
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Isn’t Gane a kickboxer by trade? Wouldn’t he be a more technical striker and not have the wrestling to take Lewis down?
I get what you’re saying, but if Francis was willing to fight Lewis in Sept, there shouldn’t be an interim belt, regardless of what he’s saying in public. We’re only talking about 6 months, and guys like Stipe defended once a year for a while. Lots of guys take time out of the cage. Even Jan Blachowicz just took a little time before getting booked in Sept (or whenever his next fight is booked). 6 months isn’t a long time.
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IF there’s not more to the story, and the UFC was just annoyed with him for talking about pay and Jones, and he was telling them he doesn’t want to fight until September, this is a fucking terrible precedent to set. Even if he was doing some dumb shit like “I’ll fight Jon in August, but if it’s Lewis, it’ll have to be Sept” that’s not a reason to strip him. DC did the same thing, avoiding a Stipe rematch and saying he’d fight Lewis on short notice. He flat out said it’s because he thought Lewis was an easier fight and he could take it without a full camp.
IDK man, I’m usually a supporter of the UFC…they have a business to run, have too many fighters to deal with, and I typically am on their side…but I haven’t seen anything warranting this type of treatment for Francis.
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UFC had Ngannou wait 11 months for his #1 contenders fight that earned him the title shot.
Then Ngannou had to wait 11 more months for his actual title shot coming off four 1st round KOs of Cain, JDS, Blaydes and Rosentruik.
Now UFC is at odds with him because of money/who he wants to fight/or if he needs an extra month or two past when they want him ready?
Don’t sound like UFC likes the management team behind Ngannou.
Int. titles have always been a clown show, no int. title needed while Stipe was out a year, no int. title needed when Conor had the LW title for eleven months and then they finally put the int. title on Tony but let Conor be champ without defending for a year and a half.
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Their first fight was so terrible I’m ok with it never happening again
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Always a reason.
Dana hated Stipe not fighting and threatened I believe but at the end of the day probably didn’t want to have a bad public image of moving past an all American champ who was a firefighter during the pandemic who had other priorities.
Conor was never stripped of his FW title for the obvious reason that they could then say he had 2 titles despite never defending either of them.
The current one is like a big fuck you to Ngannou and management thinking they deserve and will get some big Jon Jones fight for $30MM. Don’t want to fight Lewis? Now you HAVE to fight either Lewis or Gane.
Should have just fought Lewis now, go for Jones end of year if you win. Now that fight is in the parking lot for another year.
But I don’t know if there are legit reasons Ngannou can’t fight now. I just know what he has said publicly which is:
- I don’t want to fight Lewis.
- I want the Jones fight.
- Why don’t I get paid like Jake Paul?
I’m sure there is more to the story than what is being reported. It just seems odd to create an interim title for a fight in August when Francis agreed (at least according to his manager) to the Lewis fight in September.
It is also odd because Dana was hyper critical of the first Lewis fight and the UFC hype machine has been in overdrive promoting Francis as an unstoppable monster. Now he wants to get paid like the star the UFC is promoting him as, and they immediately shut it down.
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Exactly.
Wants to be paid as the star they’re promoting him as, not the star that he actually is.
If the UFC is going to push you, you need to not complain and fight and win. Like Conor, success can come but you need to have better timing than this. He’s killing himself here.
Clearly Ngannou became frustrated when he waited 11 months for a #1 contenders fight and then 11 more months for his title shot after that.
UFC is clearly frustrated with both Jones and Ngannou, when fighters get stuck with U Fight Cheap on money, UFC tries to move on so no single star can ever get too much leverage.
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I realized something a few minutes ago…this really doesn’t impact Francis at all. He’s still the champion, still gets paid what he’s expected to get paid, and doesn’t impact his leverage at all. Interim titles are fairly rare, and we’ve still seen 2 occasions where the interim champ didn’t fight for the belt next…Colby and Tony…and Colby was stripped because he wasn’t willing to fight on like 6 week’s notice, and was having a surgery.
So it’s possible that even after the UFC uses the interim belt here as a marketing tool for the fight in Lewis’ hometown…very possible we don’t see the winner fight Francis. The UFC could still book Jones vs Francis for like Sept/Oct.
All this really does is get another guy paid, as the winner of this fight will get PPV points as the challenger.
I think it does send a tough message to the fighters though…
I like the message.
As a person, I’m all for fighters getting their fair share and all that, but this is not a good road for fans when champions just want anything but real contender fights. As a fan I want to see fights. Not tweets about complaints.
Super fights always been talked about but as pipe dreams with long standing champs, like the old grumbling for GSP/Silva. Two all time great long standing champs. Or Couture and Wandy back in the day, crossover of two great champs.
Conor was a special case obviously and they struck while the iron was hot for money.
Now we have dudes who haven’t done shit demanding super fights out of the gate. Do people want to see Jones going for HW gold or just see him fight Ngannou regardless or titles?
If it’s the former, then go out and be a champ Ngannou and fight Jones later, as a champ with some substance behind him. If all you want is to fight Jones regardless, cool, go wait while the title moves on.
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They don’t have the same nationality.