News *** Francis Ngannou Free Agency/Contract/Decision Making Discussion MEGA THREAD ***

[The Bloody Nine]

yeh, fury offered to fight ngannou when he retired himself, now he has an entire lineup of heavyweights waiting in line to fight him he ain't got time for a small fight ( in boxing world )

And if he beats Usyk he will have all 4 belts and the mandatory commitments that go along with that. Maybe he can fight Francis when he retires 4 years from now. When people care even less than they do now.

 

[BobsyaUncle]

I can see it from both sides. We know how restrictive UFC contracts are so you can't blame Ngannou for wanting more freedom and/or money. But I can understand UFC not wanting to have a reigning HW Champion be made to look foolish by a top boxer (yes, that's what they allowed with Conor but he really was a bit of a unicorn that they had to give special privilege to).

 

[Rocket Punch]

dana is a terrible businessman

if they truly let Francis go, that makes their heavyweight belt worth less

 

[Credo]

Lol at Dana’s version of all these storys.

 

[SkinnyClaw]

Lol the absolute brain rot you find on here is outstanding - a scientist should fuckin study Sherdog as some microcosm of the regression of the human species.

They won't study shit till they pay me 30 million per brain scan, talk to my manager next time you want to quote my posts bitch, that's $500 per quote

 

[DestinedAussie]

As he should. Even if he's was the highest paid HW in UFC history I can guarantee you he got lowballed. I'd be shocked if he made more than Lesnar when he was fighting. It was obvious this was the way it was going to go, but I think the disrespect Ngannou faced was more of a factor for leaving than the money.

If his the highest paid HW in UFC history he would be getting more than lesnar.

 

[BigNick100]

This is a sad day for UFC fighters and their future. If a champion with a great backstory can’t negotiate any freedom or flexibility, what are lesser fighters going to do?

The sport will never see progress, as long as there are millions of people willing to die for Dana White and his women-beating.

This is dumb as hell. So NBA, NFL, NHL players sign contracts and are allowed go play somewhere else as well when they want to make extra money?

Would your boss be ok with you telling them you want to not come into work today because you want to take a day job for one day somewhere else because you can? GTFO

 

[Hellowhosthat]

So guys like Usman, Adesanya, Cormier...not are exactly big needle movers yet we have good reason to believe they all made around 2-5m per fight as champs, on occasion possibly more. But N'Gannou made 700k after the backend percentages as HW champ?

Frank signed his contract 5 years ago, they've offered him new contracts during that time, but because he hasn't accepted them he's just on his old contract.

So he could have made more money, but he obviously felt that the offers they were making were undervaluing him.

Similar situation with Paulo Costa.

 

[C0NCH3TO]

Well, Ngannou did something that was nearly impossible to do before. Not even Randy could pull it off. I guess the bald goof is softening up or there is a way to get out of these difficult contracts with a champ clause. However he did it, it will empower other fighters to chose their destiny in situations like this.

Francis is pushing 40, it's not like losing a young champ with a long career ahead of him.

lmao he’s 36.

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

He's said they've tried to work on a deal with Francis for almost 2 years, but they couldn't make it work.

Says they offered Ngannou a deal which would have made him the highest paid HW in UFC history.

I'll wait to hear Ngannou's side to all this. Call me crazy but I'm not taking Dana's word for how this played out. I'm still waiting for the question Dana, you fired Dan Hardy for being verbally abusive to a female employee, what do you think your punishment should be for hitting your wife in public?

 

[spinup]

Well, Ngannou did something that was nearly impossible to do before. Not even Randy could pull it off. I guess the bald goof is softening up or there is a way to get out of these difficult contracts with a champ clause.

It's partially thanks to the big lawsuits that pressed the UFC to put an expiration date on their contracts.
And also, Ngannou pakd a high price for resisting to resign for years.

 

[Can’t Handle My Riddum]

Everyone knows who Francis is and he’s all over YouTube highlight knockouts. Dude ain’t forgotten.

MMA fans for sure. My friends who don’t follow the sport know of him, kind of, but he’s lost a lot of steam in the public consciousness.

It’s not his fault that he needed to wait ages after his last fight to get out of the contract. But in a world with an increasingly short attention span, a year out of the headlines is a long time.

I hope he gets a huge money fight and gets what he deserves financially.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Frank signed his contract 5 years ago, they've offered him new contracts during that time, but because he hasn't accepted them he's just on his old contract.

So he could have made more money, but he obviously felt that the offers they were making were undervaluing him.

Similar situation with Paulo Costa.

Absolutely but he was still easily cracking 1-3m per fight, no way as HW Champ he wasn't at least getting the bare minimum PPV percentage. Dude shouldn't be happy with that though, I get where he's coming from and he's not young, might as well cash in on a bigger payday or two while he can.

 

[chiefwiggum]

How did that chisora fight do on ppv?

A one night live gate no matter how huge isn't enough these days. I'm betting

That was at Tottenham stadium, it was 60k. I just checked and the fight did abysmal viewing numbera.

What do you mean “ it isn’t enough these days”
Ppv has steadily been dropping like crazy. And
it was his prior fight against whyte was 100kbattendamce.

60k live gate for a fight that nobody cares about is tremendous. So is 300k Ppv buys some say 500k. with millions of people watching it. For perspective
ufc 278 did 300k buys.
And we’ve seen it twice already and chisora was washed up. And collecting a pay check.
Far from abysmal numbers. Fury made a gurantee 25 million and chisora 4. With an 80/20 Ppv split. In a fight that nobody was excited for.

that speaks volumes.

You call that abysmal numbers?

 

[ChimRichalds]

I agree, it's dumb as hell.

 

[SG123]

Why would a company agree to let him go do a sport that directly competes with what he's doing, that will interfere with his ability to take fights and possibly lead to him getting injured? Moving on was the best thing for both parties in this situation. Say they let him box. He gets a taste of that money and he'd have never set foot in the octagon again

A taste of what money? Francis barely sells in MMA, nobody is paying him big money to box. And even if by some miracle he got one fight for decent money it would be his first and last, his boxing is horrible

 

[Yrat]

Ufc was cheap and Francis will make.a better career outside of ufc.

Last time we saw this was Bj Penn in 2004 when he left Ufc for K-1 heros. Fighting in Japan 1998-2006 gave more money then UFC no matter what. Maybe Tito made 200k in 2002 but i doubt it.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Francis is betting on himself here. If he does not get an 8 figures payout for getting his ass beaten in boxing then it was all pretty much a waste.

I wonder what conditions other MMA orgs offer him. I could see Bellator or PFL offering him good money and letting him do his boxing thing on the side.

 

[wwkirk]

If Francis winds up highly successful, then he could trigger a trend among top UFC fighters, including champs. On the other hand, if he crashes and burns, or even just has limited success, UFC fighters may become more cowed than ever.

 

[Darius0995]

I think you are completely misunderstanding the challenge for Jones to compete at HW. I know it has been a little while since he has fought but you are questioning Jon Jones' skills as a fighter that are unquestionably equal or greater than everyone but maybe one or two people to ever complete in MMA. The only question about Jones' success at HW was if he could overcome the massive size and power advantage against a huge guy like Ngannou. Clearly Ngannou didn't want it and Gane doesn't have those advantages and is no match to Jones' skill.

Judging by his recent fights, evidence suggests that Jones’ skills as a fighter have somewhat deteriorated, or at the least many in MMA have caught up with him and he’s failed to evolve. I’d even argue that Gane is the much better overall stand-up fighter between the two.