Summary
- ONE Championship and Francis Ngannou were close to signing a deal
- ONE Championship CEO now reveals they will not pursue a deal with Ngannou
- Ngannou claims he is close to signing with another promotion
Former UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou has been a free agent ever since he relinquished his UFC heavyweight belt in Jan 2023 and decided to test free agency.
Ngannou was allegedly offered the highest paying UFC heavyweight contract in the history of the promotion but walked away from it as he had other demands that the UFC was not willing to meet.
Ngannou has remained a free agent since then as a number of promotions including Bellator and Bare Knuckle FC tried to sign Francis Ngannou but soon lose interest as they said Ngannou was asking for a lot of money that they were not willing to pay.
ONE Championship which has a huge presence in the Asian betting market was also keen on signing Ngannou. ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong made it clear last week that the promotion was very serious on getting Ngannou signed and Sityodtong said that he would have one final discussion with Ngannou over the weekend to see if they can agree on a contract.
Sityodtong said that he met with Ngannou over the weekend and ended up having a 3 hour conversation. However, things did not work out between the two as Sityodtong said ONE Championship decided not to move forward with offering Ngannou a fight contract.
Sityodtong did not get into much detail but claimed it wasn’t because of money but because some of the demands Ngannou made did not align with the company’s long term goals. MMA fans took to social media to let Ngannou know that he made a big mistake in leaving the UFC and that his star power is declining with every passing month that he fails to sign with a fight promotion.
MMA fans have urged Ngannou to go back to the UFC and make things right with UFC President Dana White. However, Ngannou isn’t likely to do that as he told MMA reporter Ariel Helwani that he is in talks with another fight promotion and is close to signing a contract.
The only other big MMA promotion that can afford Ngannou is the PFL and they are yet to release a statement regarding any on-going talks with Francis Ngannou.
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