Dan Hardy believes that UFC president Dana White will stop at nothing to stop fighters from following in the footsteps of the recent boxing sensation and former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.
The world of boxing has officially been rocked by the ‘Predator’ Francis Ngannou. His recent expedition fight with Tyson Fury saw the former UFC heavyweight champion gain respect from the martial arts world like no one else after coming dangerously close to beating the undefeated and undisputed king of heavyweight boxing. However, Dan Hardy believes that this success has most definitely infuriated one man. That man is UFC president, Dana White.
The feud between these Dana White and Francis Ngannou robbed the world of some of the greatest heavyweight match ups that the UFC has ever seen. There were a lot of reasons for this dispute ranging from pay to general disagreements however one of Dana White’s biggest issues was Francis’ desire to go into boxing while staying in the UFC. Dana White isn’t impartial from letting his fighters go into boxing, shown by Conor Mcgregor v Floyd Mayweather fight. However he only provides that privilege to his favorite fighters.
Dana White must not be pleased with everything that has happened to the ‘Predator’. Both the expedition fight and his lucrative deal with the PFL has lead Dan Hardy to give his opinion on The MMA Hour.
Dan Hardy on The MMA Hour
Dan Hardy said; ‘We got the (Floyd Mayweather v Conor McGregor) thing and that was a one off. I do feel like the UFC in particular like Dana’s a boxing fan. I think he was intrigued by that because he thought Conor was something quite special and he might be able to just do something as well as obviously they made a bunch of cash out of it.’
‘If you look at somebody like Sean O’Malley or a Jon Jones, he doesn’t want to take that risk. You remember when he took Chuck Liddell over to PRIDE and ‘Rampage’ (Quinton Jackson) beat him up. That kind of burned him I feel. He’s been very very reluctant to risk breaking his toys in other peoples promotions. I think he’s going to do everything he can to stop people from doing it.’
He continued, ‘I think now people are going to have the courage and confidence to see Ngannou go into free agency, recognize that maybe the grass is potentially greener elsewhere. The money is certainly greener elsewhere, I can tell you that. We’ll see a few more people working there way out of their contracts.’
Quotes via bjpenn.com
Dan Hardy does raise an interesting point that is a growing issue for Dana White. Other promotion do pay their fighters better. Francis Ngannou could be the catalyst that forces Dana White into raising the pay for all UFC fighters. Do you think Dan Hardy is right in saying that some UFC fighters will leave the promotion for better pay?
Let us know in the comments below!
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
