Dana White, the President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), left after the co-main event of UFC 270 and did not wrap the belt around Ngannou’s waist as he usually does.
On Jan. 22, Francis Ngannou beat Ciryl Gane via Decision Victory to keep his Heavyweight belt at the same UFC 270 event.
On the ESPN MMA channel, Dana White explained why left after the co-main event, “there was stuff going on backstage” and “there’s only one time I’ve walked out on a fight – and made it very clear.”
This beef with Ngannou and the UFC started after Ngannou Knocked out Stipe Miocic at UFC 260 and wanted to take a small break before fighting again. However, the UFC decided to book Gane vs Lewis with the winner getting the Interim Champion Belt.
Eric Nicksick, one of the coaches for Ngannou, talked about the Interim Championship (IC) fight on MMAFightingonSBN, “It came as a shock to all of us.”
White also talked about the Interim Championship fight on Lieutenant’s Loft MMA, “I got fights every Saturday. If you don’t want to fight, don’t fight.”
During that same interview, White talked about a person in Ngannou’s circle that he has a problem with, “the big issue with the other guy is we had a deal and he came back and said no,” which the person already agreed to the contract.
Ngannou and Gane had some “beef” that was quickly mistaken and squashed at the UFC 270 Press Conference.
The first instance of this “beef” was when sparring footage was leaked and Ngannou talked about that footage, “When I saw that footage, my first reaction was laughing … I know exactly what happened at those training sessions is about to make him look better and make me look bad”, reported by MMA Today.
Secondly, Ngannou didn’t greet Gane at one of the UFC events at UFC 268, which was reported on MMA Talk, “If I say hi to them without saying hi to Fernan and they respond, I think that might cause them a problem.”
Fernan Lopez was Ngannou’s ex-coach and since then, they seem to have squashed their beef.
XcellentMMA2 posted a UFC Press Conference when Ngannou explained his UFC contract, “No it’s not simply money. I don’t feel like I am a free man … I don’t feel like I’ve been treated good.”
Ngannou talked about how the UFC was suing him on The MMA Hour, “They (coaches) told me that they just received an email from the UFC saying they’re going to sue him for talking with Nakisa (Jake Paul Business Partner).”
The Heavyweight Champion also made it clear that he won’t fight for $600,000 and was reported on Full Mount MMA.
Jake Paul went into the mix when he tweeted, “Francis Ngannou deserves much better than the lies and disrespect Dana White has shown him.”
Ngannou mentioned that he would like to do boxing and Tyson Fury recorded a video via Twitter talking about the potential fight and Ngannou replied with a fight poster.
