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

[jsbx45]

Fury trolled him good. He still thinks they will box.

I feel bad fpr Francis on that one. Hope he can make that one big score.

 

[what-wut]

Just a straight up fuck you to everyone liking an anti-Francis comment and being a bunch of bootlicking bitches.

 

[Mike]

You got balls. I thought of posting something like this when I first heard. Then thought better of it. I was actually thinking of it from a general perspective...

Take for example, Connor vs Diaz. They fight, suddenly Diaz has a lot of money and Connor moves on to make even more. If Diaz wanted to, he now has more money than what the UFC would pay a fighter to fight Diaz. So theoretically (this did not happen) Diaz could simply pay off whoever, make them go away...pay them to get hurt...and clear out the path so he could walk into the championship fight against a fighter OF HIS CHOOSING.

Connor could do the same. Anyone who hit the super big payout level could do it. Dana could do it. You are taking it from the perspective of who ducked who. I mused if it was a mutual agreement...both of their faults. How much money would it take for you to NOT FIGHT?

With all the shenanigans that I've seen the last couple years outside of fighting...and so many people suggesting both...just made me go hmmm....if Jones became the miracle heavy weight could he bring the UFC back to former levels of public interest? What if Connor returned around the same time against the right opponent...is the motivation enough to pull something that big? What would be the payout for the company?

Nah, but... nah. But...

I think the way everything has played out since, backs up Jones account that he'll take on risk.... for money. He started making noises about more money to fight Francis, and honestly I think the UFC and Francis misplayed the situation. The ufc have a history of trying to use fighters against eachother to drive pay down. Oh we can't make the fight because that other guy is SCARED to fight you.

That shit is not gonna work on Jones because well, it's Jones. And as we've learned Francis doesn't appear to be a person you can negotiate with under normal terms at all. Basically if the ufc wasn't always proactively cheap and Francis wasn't so stubborn it probably would've worked out.

 

[ChimRichalds]

Its just too hard to say for me. Jones may very well have sat out waiting for an easier fight than Francis. Also very possible that Jones was ready to go and would have come back much earlier had Franks contract issues not held it up.

I don't know who to believe in this situation and doubt we will ever get a definitive answer.

 

[Substance Abuse]

Both are to blame to an extent, with the UFC orchestrating everything by being cheap, petty and vindictive. That said, it's hard to trust Jones and Dana considering their histories, so I side with Francis more, who was looking out for himself, even if most don't agree with the outcome.

 

[ejazahmednit]

No, man, Francis said that on Helwani.

Ariel said Brock made around 8 mills and asked Francis if that's what they were offering and Francis said yeah, for Jones fight.

If you could please link that, I believe it was well established that 8 mill was for the Jones fight
Also ofcourse if he loses, his value goes down
Specially if he lost like Gane

 

[mjfan23]

Sure that's the take NOW after Jones made it look easy. A lot of people thought Gane would win prior.

Until we actually see Jones losing we aren’t favouring Jones to lose any fight

 

[goOb]

Francis should be very happy he is never going to fight Jones. Jones would submit Frances about as fast as he did Gane. Francis isn’t a great wrestler and even worse at BJJ. All he has is a punchers chance and to be honest the leg kicks would eat him up before he was able to land.

 

[markg171]

That's not the point.

The point is that all the people who think Francis turned down 'so much money' by leaving seem to forget that it would become 'way less money' if he loses...but then he would still be locked in long-term.

It's not about the money which is of course why he asked for even more money from ONE.

 

[Mike]

Francis should be very happy he is never going to fight Jones. Jones would submit Frances about as fast as he did Gane. Francis isn’t a great wrestler and even worse at BJJ. All he has is a punchers chance and to be honest the leg kicks would eat him up before he was able to land.

Well I'm sure at this point he'd love to fight Jones lol.

 

[spinup]

They aren't asking for 20 mil a fight now are they?

No you're right. The only time Jones asked for 20 millions for one fight was when Ngannou was still in the UFC and had the belt.

Apart from that nobody else ever asked for 20 millions per fight.

 

[RoñaCastroJr]

Lmao at white knighting for ariel

 

[No Mas]

Lol, love how people act like getting paid 8mill for a fight that will likely generate 1.5mill+ buys and likely amass the biggest live gate along with that, is some amazing deal.

In boxing that would be a minimum 50mill each territory, likely closer to 100 with the right management.

And from my understand this offer was only for this one fight, not like he was gonna get 8mills for fighting randoms after.

And then you had all of Francis' inherent dislike for the UFC business practices and how they own all rights. Similar to how Fedor felt like he was being treated. How much $ is your self worth?

Even if Francis makes something like ~1mill in the PFL, he'll likely have a very liberal contract that will allow him to either box, or easily resign with the UFC for one more fight vs. Jones once they realize they shot themselves in the foot equally since if Stipe fight falls through Jones has no interest in other contenders, and if they fight it's unlikely to generate anywhere near the interest of Jones v. Ngannou. And if a Jones-Ngannou fight does happen, rest assured Francis won't be making 8mill only.

And, if Jones retires UFC is pretty dead in terms of star power, about all they have is Izzy who already beat all of the contenders (I guess they can spam Izzy Pereira and Izzy Whittaker ad infinitum like kickboxing does), and Chimaev who's barely fighting atm. Prob the weakest the UFC has been since early 90s imo, and if it stays like this think it's really gonna show in the quality of fights in the coming few years.

It's unlucky things didn't align for Francis so far with all of Wilder/Fury/Joshua being in talks for other fights, but he'll likely still have a potential fight with one of them after the landscape settles a bit. In the end, he still likely made the right career move.

 

[HavokHarmon]

lol everybody was trash talking Dana but now it turns out every promoter have failed to make a deal with Francis, maybe it's only Francis the one to blame for all this failed negotiations.

Yeah, I tend to take anything Dana has to say with pretty big grain of salt but the fact that every other promoter is coming out saying basically the same thing lends too much credibility to overlook.

 

[NoSmilez]

the fact that the UFC let their heavyweight champion leave, when he is a vicious knockout artist, is fucking embarrassing.

ngannou has a career finishing rate of 94%. he's won one fight by decision, everything else was either a KO or a submission. he was only ever beaten by decision.

the dude is likable as hell outside the ring, and an absolute monster inside it. they should've paid him so much money he wouldn't even know what to do with it. he's the promotion's dream fighter, and they fucked it up.

He is honestly not a big seller. It isn't like the promotion didn't try to push him too. Francis sells the least out of the 3 Kings.

 

[Brit_Brawler]

It's worth noting that the ufc tried to sign brock since that 8 mill fight and negotiations failed. They wouldn't pay him enough. With epsn etc, they can't offer the ppv cuts like they used to, sponsorships etc

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

His value would make or break with that fight. He's not popular with the ppv buying market, but he would have received major media play and clout if he won. I get wanting guaranteed sums, but that reads like he was afraid of Jones (losing to, not physically afraid)

 

[heSHurt]

Baddest man on the planet was afraid he will lose and won't have enough money to feed his family.

 

[Prologue]

This is when I knew Jon would never fight Ngannou.

 

[Kwic]

Of course there would be the army of Dana apologists coming in hot to trash Francis here. UFC contracts are Draconian. Imagine signing a contract where:

You are bound to contract ( say 4 fights), and contract is still in effect for 5 years post retirement, and you are an "independent contractor" so you get no protections or benefits.

Even tho you are chained to the contract, the UFC is in no way bound to the contract and can let you go at any moment for any reason whatsoever.

If you're making the assumption that UFC was offering a fair and just contract ... I mean just give me a break. If you've followed UFC for any length of time here you should know that
A) Dana is always lying
B) UFC was 100% trying to screw Francis in any way they could. It's what they do.

"Even sheep have enough brains not to follow a wolf"

Yup, it's sad that Sherdog is turning on fighters like that. Instead for cheering for the guy and hope he manages to get a good contract they can't wait to see him fail. The same people that advocate for better fighter's pay.
Not to mention they are forgetting that money wasn't the only thing Francis was unhappy with in the contract, I would say money wasn't even at the top of his wish list. Shills are strong in here.