UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou turned down a $5 million contract extension from UFC, opting to fight out his contract and enter free agency, which led to a lucrative partnership deal with PFL and high-profile boxing matches against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
Francis Ngannou, the UFC heavyweight champ, took a huge risk. More than most folks realized. In 2021, he was the reigning king of the UFC heavyweight division. And he had just one fight left on his contract.
Usually, the UFC re-signs champs before they finish their contracts. But Ngannou wasn’t having any of that. He chose to roll the dice on himself. He rejected an extension offer and decided to fight out his contract. He wanted to enter free agency. Fans knew he was taking a risk, but the magnitude of it only became clear later.
Ngannou told Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo on their show, Pound 4 Pound, about the contract he turned down. He said, “You knew a lot about the stuff that I turned down from the UFC negotiation with my last fight in the UFC. I took $600,000 for my last fight in the UFC as opposed to $5 million that they were offering for the same fight. And I was broke. At the time I owed Usman $200,000. I was broke. It’s true!”
The gamble paid off big time for Ngannou. After beating Ciryl Gane in his final UFC bout, he turned down another UFC offer. This one would have paid him “around” $8 million for a Jon Jones fight. But he chose free agency. He signed a lucrative partnership deal with PFL. This allowed him to pursue boxing, leading to a massive fight against Tyson Fury and an upcoming match against Anthony Joshua.
But Ngannou says he would’ve made the same choices even if things hadn’t gone so well. He explained, “What happened is I had something, I had a goal, I had my own way. I wanted something and it couldn’t be delivered. I couldn’t sell out what I wanted just because of more money. Obviously I needed that money. Obviously I never had that amount of money.”
He added, “I wasn’t loyal to the dream, I was loyal to myself. What I make sure I always am is loyal to myself. To what I set, my principles, my goals, everything. I don’t change direction because unpredictable things, because of some things that are attractive. I don’t change my direction and I think that’s what happened.”
After that fight, there were negotiations. The UFC was ready to make a lot of concessions. But it wasn’t enough for Ngannou. His expectations, his goals weren’t met. So he moved on. He chose a different path.
Ngannou is set to face Joshua this Friday. It’s a 10-round boxing match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He’s currently all about boxing, but he’s still partnered with the PFL. He’s expected to fight in the SmartCage in 2025.
Despite his current focus on boxing, Ngannou admits he misses MMA. He said, “I miss MMA, too, bro! I get to the point where now I’m like, I think MMA was very easy. Not that it’s easy, but it’s my comfort zone. I know what I’m doing. It’s my area. I’m in boxing every day, trying to figure out all the new stuff, experiment, all that stuff — it’s hard. The body mechanics, you have to adjust everything, which is stuff you’ve done in MMA. The body knows what you’re doing, even if MMA is more complex, you’ve been doing it. You know when you step in the octagon how to manage that.”