Since parting ways with the UFC in January, and Dana White stating that they’ll “never” have him back, Francis Ngannou has already explored free agency with multiple promotions.
However, as of right now, “The Predator” hasn’t been able to come to terms with a new deal with any of the UFC’s competitors.
ONE Championship Close the Door on Francis Ngannou
This week ONE Championship joined Bellator and BKFC by closing the door on signing Ngannou.
In a recent interview with Daily Star Sport, the CEO of ONE Championship, Chatri Sityodtong, revealed why he pulled out of the race to sign the former UFC heavyweight world champion.
“He was asking for a seat at the board of directors, he was asking for him to determine his opponent’s pay”
“We obviously can’t give a seat at the board of directors, that doesn’t make any sense, he would be a fish out of water [in that position].”
“We offered him £16 million ($20million) guaranteed, the money wasn’t enough, he wanted all of these other non-financial terms that didn’t make a lot of sense.”
Chatri Sityodtong speaking to Daily Star Sport
While it may seem like Ngannou is asking for unrealistic demands, we only hear one side of the story. It is not unheard of for MMA promoters to push the narrative they want the public to believe, even if it isn’t all factual. Ariel Helwani found this out the hard way previously. So it’s no wonder he reached out to the Cameroonian-born fighter to see what he had to say about his meeting with ONE Championship.
Ariel Helwani Speaks With Ngannou
Helwani spoke about his phone call with Ngannou on The MMA hour. He claims that Ngannou is close to signing a deal with an MMA promotion other than ONE Championship, and despite this, Ngannou and Sityodtong left the meeting on good terms.
“Francis is very close to signing a new deal with another promotion, and according to Francis he was very upfront about this [with Sityodtong].”
“They left the meeting on good terms, but you know both of them came to an understanding that because he [Ngannou] had already verbally committed to someone, more than likely he’s not going to ONE”
Ariel reveals that he believes Sityodtong’s public comments about not offering Ngannou a contract due to his high demands were a PR move to get ahead of the narrative.
“His [Ngannou] feeling and I’ll be honest my feeling after getting both sides of the story is Chatri, which he’s in his right to do, tried to get ahead of the story, tried to save face by putting it out there that, ‘we are withdrawing’ as opposed to ‘we couldn’t close the deal and get this guy to come.'”
Helwani also discusses his recent meeting with the CEO of ONE Championship, which took place last week.
“I thought it was really interesting when he [Sityodtong] was in the studio and talking about who the big players are, thought it was really interesting when I asked him about PFL, that one seemed to be the one that really got him fired up”
“So maybe coming off the of that, he wants everyone to know like we’re in control here. We’re not offering this guy a deal here, it’s not that he’s choosing someone else”
Ariel Helwani speaking on The MMA Hour
With Sityodtong visibly fired up when Ariel brought up the PFL on the MMA hour after being unable to seal the deal with Ngannou, it makes it seem as though “The Predator” may be heading to the Professional Fighters League.
It’s crazy to think about how close we were to the Jon Jones vs Francis Ngannou mega fight in the UFC. These days it seems like a pipe dream. Hopefully, we get to see Ngannou fight again soon.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images and Embed from Getty Images
