Ngannou; I’ll only re-sign with UFC if…

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UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannouwants his superfight with Tyson Fury, and nothing will get in his way.

Ngannou is determined to get a fight with boxing champion Fury one way or another, as he finds himself in a contract dispute with the UFC. Ngannou (17-3 MMA, 12-2 UFC) fought out his deal in January following a successful title defense against Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 270. He’s set to become a free agent in December.

The Cameroonian has been open about the issues he’s faced in dealing with the UFC brass. And although there’s been a lot of tension between the two parties, Ngannou is still keen to re-sign with the UFC but only under one condition.”

The Tyson Fury fight has to be part of the discussion,” Ngannou said during an interview on “The MMA Hour” on Monday. “That’s not an option. It has to be part of the discussion because if that’s not part of the discussion, it will never be. If I sign another contract now, basically the same model of the contract, I’m screwed. That’s not happening ever. So we have to figure out a way to implement this into a contract.”

Ngannou could wait out until his UFC championship clause expires and fight Fury without the UFC’s involvement. However, he sees a life in MMA afterward and considers the UFC the right place to continue fighting.

“I think the UFC is a good promotion, and I want to keep fighting,” Ngannou said. “The Tyson Fury is not my last fight. I want to keep fighting. After Tyson Fury there’s still a lot of fights. There’s the Jon Jones, there’s the Stipe trilogy.

“There’s big fights I can do in the UFC, and I would really like that to happen. I would really like us to get to a common point. Yes, I can do the Tyson Fury fight on my own, but what’s next? I would like to keep fighting. I would like for us to come to an agreement.”

For now, Ngannou revealed there’s been little progress with the UFC regarding his contract situation. There have been a couple of meetings since his last fight, but none have gotten closer to getting him to sign a new deal.

“We had a dinner with the UFC, and that wasn’t about the contract situation. That was just about clearing the air because it is clear at this point that we had to clear the air,” said Ngannou, who’s recovering from knee surgery. “It was just to clean things out, speak things out, and we kind of just spoke. I was speaking about my frustration, but also I had to go back home because it’s not a thing that’s supposed to be solved in one night or over one or two dinners.

“It might take some time. I went home and saw my family and came back and had the surgery. … As far as business, we haven’t really moved on. I think just now what they’re trying to do is clear the air.”

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If Dana ever wants Zuffa Boxing to be a thing he needs to get this figured out. Fury vs Ngannou might not be competitive but that’s a big money fight.

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Yea that component is taking a long time

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big money fight yeah but chacnes are ngannou gets humiliated and it kills his value for future fights.

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Will the UFC brand take a beating if Francis takes a beating from Fury? I think that’s foremost on the UFC agenda. They can easily work out the revenue sharing and contract details, but will it impact the UFC brand?

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I think a prime Fury humiliating a prime Ngannou is less damaging to the UFC brand than an old Mayweather humiliating a prime McGregor, and that didn’t seem to do any damage at all.

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Conors value went up after the Mayweather fight. I mean, Conor hasn’t had a significant win in five years and he can still pull a million buys if he fought a broomstick.

Also, you’d make way more money off of a Fury vs Ngannou fight than off a Jones/Stipe vs Ngannou fight. I thought this company was about making money?

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Conor was fighitng mayweather who isn’t a dude that’s gonna merk you.

Tyson Fury can legitimately bodybag ngannou should he choose to.

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That’s not what Chael says. He says the promoter lost money on McGregor/Floyd fight and those were the two exceptional fighters of the entire sport. It’s a myth that mma/boxing fights do well, just look at all the others who tried it. We don’t even know where to watch some of these.

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Conor and the UFC made $275,000,000 from the Floyd fight. Conor took home roughly $85 million from that cut. Where’s the loss?

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if he wants to be a pro boxer…start with 4 rounders and work your way up
if he can…he can punch but so what there are tons of guys in boxing who can punch hard…different game…different gloves…dont be shocked if he turns out to be the same massive puncher that connor turned out to be in boxing

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It’s a worthless fight in terms of meaning anything.

It’s not boxing since they will be using MMA gloves and it’s not MMA.

It’s an attempt at an interesting payday but it means nothing as it’s not for any title, or even on anyone’s boxing/mma fight record.

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The promoter paid that money, expecting profits, but only sustained losses. The promoter announced that the fight made huge money, but that’s what they do in boxing, they bullshit. And despite Floyd and Connor both expressing interest in a rematch, nobody wanted to organize it, because the first one was such a huge financial loss.

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What promoter are you speaking of?

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Take anything Chael says with a grain of salt

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I can’t believe Dana would watch this fight happen next year and not get a piece of it

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Probably going to have to end up letting him do it if you’re the UFC. Should have locked him up with a new contract when he was a contender instead of being cheap.

Might even benefit in the long run when he comes back to fight Aspinall fresh off of massive UK publicity.

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Did Conor get humiliated?

I don’t think so.

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Dana should offer Tyson a fight with Francis in the octagon.
if they can agree on a rule set, like time limits on the ground, no direct kicks to the knee etc, it would be the biggest fight in the worlds history.
Ali and Inoki already proved it can be done.

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I can always see the fighters side of this stuff but I can see the UFC’s too.

What is sad is that the fighters don’t have the foresight or a strong enough case to have these discussions with the ufc behind closed doors and negotiate. It’s never a good tactic in any business to give your boss an ultimatum and doing it publicly seems to go even worse.