Francis Ngannou reacts to Jake Paul’s win over Mike Tyson: ‘That sight just hurt me’

Francis Ngannou had a hard time watching good friend Mike Tyson fight Jake Paul.

[autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag] had a hard time watching his good friend [autotag]Mike Tyson[/autotag] fight [autotag]Jake Paul[/autotag].

58-year-old Tyson managed to avoid taking any serious shots, but lost a unanimous decision to Paul in their Netflix boxing match headliner Friday at AT&T Stadium.

Ngannou, who had Tyson in his corner for his boxing debut against Tyson Fury, credited the boxing legend for going the distance with Paul, but didn’t enjoy seeing this version of him.

“It just hurt me to see Mike there in that situation,” Ngannou told TMZ Sports. “Like, knowing Mike, what he can do and see him there with Jake Paul, and Jake Paul like – hey man, like, that sight just hurt me. Although, you have to give it to Mike, man.

“This is 58-year-old Mike Tyson that’s been doing this sport since 12 years old, I believe, and to still be able to stand up on his own, at this age, I think it’s impressive. Stand up against a young 27-year-old guy, even though I would say he wouldn’t be at that level, but wasn’t that much of a threat for Mike. You have to give it up to him.”

Tyson stood toe-to-toe with Paul at the start, before eventually slowing down. Paul later revealed that he took it easy on the boxing legend, and carried him through the rounds to avoid hurting him.

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For more on the fight, visit MMA Junkie’s hub for Paul vs. Tyson.

Chael Sonnen, Daniel Cormier agree how Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou would unfold

After UFC 309, Chael Sonnen and Daniel Cormier doubt Francis Ngannou’s chances against Jon Jones.

After UFC 309, [autotag]Chael Sonnen[/autotag] and [autotag]Daniel Cormier[/autotag] doubt [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag]’s chances against [autotag]Jon Jones[/autotag].

Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) retained his UFC heavyweight title when he finished Stipe Miocic in the third round with a spinning back kick to the body in Saturday’s main event at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Watching Jones dominate Miocic (20-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC) from start to finish makes Sonnen think former UFC heavyweight champ and current PFL heavyweight superfights champ Ngannou would’ve struggled against Jones.

“Do you know what Jon would have done to Francis Ngannou in hindsight?” Sonnen said on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Daniel Cormier. “Now that we look back, Jon would have picked that big man a part. I mean, I’m just sharing with you, like, that’s a big man’s nightmare. Jon’s not a heavyweight; Jon is fighting at heavyweight. There’s a massive difference.”

Jones and Ngannou were on a collision course before Ngannou opted to sign with PFL. Cormier, who fought Jones twice, was especially impressed with his former rival’s wrestling.

“Yes, dude, Francis would have struggled with Jones,” Cormier said. “Dude, he threw Stipe down and just beat the crap out of him. He literally grabbed him by the neck, stepped behind his leg and threw him down. He choke slammed him and just beat him on the ground.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.

Deontay Wilder hopes to get Francis Ngannou boxing match conversations going

Deontay Wilder is open to lacing up the gloves against Francis Ngannou next.

[autotag]Deontay Wilder[/autotag] is open to lacing up the gloves against [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag] next.

Wilder is currently rehabbing arm and shoulder injuries, which he suffered in back-to-back losses to Joseph Parker and most recently Zhilei Zhang by TKO in June. PFL heavyweight superfights champion Ngannou has previously angled for a fight against Wilder, and “The Bronze Bomber” had nothing but respect when addressing a potential matchup.

“Ever since I’ve been off, there’s been a lot of offers coming in, a lot of different countries, even with Francis,” Wilder told TMZ. “What’s up, brother? I hope everything is going good for you, man. I’m sorry for your loss.

“I can only imagine what it’s like to lose a child, man. I never hope to even feel that feeling of it. I hope life is going beautifully for you, bro. That’s a conversation I’m still looking to get in there in the mix and talk about.”

Ngannou’s two boxing appearances have gone drastically different. After knocking down Tyson Fury and pushing him to the brink in a controversial decision loss in October 2023, “The Predator” was finished by Anthony Joshua in a Round 2 knockout loss in March.

But despite Ngannou’s brutal loss to Joshua, Wilder isn’t dismissing him as an opponent.

“Any fight is competitive,” Wilder said. “You’ve got a man who’s got two hands and two feet, and got a heart, that will to win. You’ve got competition, you’ve got a fight on your hands. So that’s why, when you get in the ring, you respect every man that steps in there because you never know what he may bring to the fight.”

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Francis Ngannou’s coach details how he would game plan for Jon Jones: ‘Make it an ugly fight’

If Francis Ngannou were to face Jon Jones, Eric Nicksick would advise him to bring the fight to him.

If [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag] were to face [autotag]Jon Jones[/autotag], [autotag]Eric Nicksick[/autotag] would advise him to bring the fight to him.

PFL heavyweight superfights champ Ngannou (17-3) and UFC heavyweight champion Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) were on a collision course in the UFC until Ngannou opted to sign with PFL.

UFC CEO Dana White is not a fan of cross promotion, but if a deal was ever reached where a superfight between Ngannou and Jones happened, Nicksick broke down what their game plan would look like.

“I definitely think you had to put Jon on his backfoot,” Nicksick told Kevin Iole. “You had to put pressure on him, you had to put him up against the corner post, and you couldn’t get in a technical fight with Jon. And you couldn’t allow him to dictate the hand play, right – where he starts to occupy your hands and that’s a slow-paced type of fight where Jon is very technical there, and he starts to pick you apart with elbows, and the clinch, and the knees and the things that he does so well.

“For me, I thought we’ve got to get this guy on his backfoot, and we’ve got to apply pressure right away and make it an ugly fight. Don’t make it a technical fight. You’re going to have to make this grimy and try to get him out of there in the first two, three rounds. I think the longer a fight would have gone between him and Francis, it would have favored more Jon, and that was where I felt like if we put a game plan on him, we were going to have to put the pace on him.”

Jones makes his first heavyweight title defense when he takes on Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in the UFC 309 headliner Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden.

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.

Daniel Cormier explains why Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou could happen

Daniel Cormier doesn’t rule out the possibility of Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou happening.

[autotag]Daniel Cormier[/autotag] doesn’t rule out the possibility of [autotag]Jon Jones[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag] happening.

If you ask UFC CEO Dana White, he’ll tell you there’s zero chance of that becoming a reality. White recently went off Ngannou, and their relationship appears to be as soured as ever.

Heavyweight champion Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) makes his first title defense against Stipe Miocic in the UFC 309 headliner Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden. Both him and his coaches have hinted at retirement after the fight.

But Jones’ coach Greg Jackson said a big paycheck could make Jones stick around. A matchup with PFL heavyweight superfights champ Ngannou (17-3) could definitely deliver that, and if there’s one man that could make it happen, Cormier says it’s Turki Alalshikh.

“If Turki and Francis and Jon can make these dollars make sense, why wouldn’t they do it?” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “I’m not sitting up here saying it’s going to happen because Dana does not like Francis. That is a massive problem – massive problem.

“But hell, when in the world do you put that above business? I don’t know that he will. He’s one of the smartest, sharpest businessman you’ve ever met. If the dollars make sense, the fight could potentially happen.”

Ngannou and his team seem to think a fight with Jones could happen. Despite the UFC being heavily against cross promotion, Cormier says sharing the same broadcast partner definitely makes things easier.

“If Francis is to be believed, and Francis has had these conversations, we’re now entering a world where multiple partnerships already are established in this realm,” Cormier continued. “ESPN UFC, ESPN PFL, Riyadh Season UFC – ladies and gentleman, maybe, just maybe, we get that fight.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.

Ben Askren relates to Francis Ngannou dealing with Dana White’s wrath: ‘It’s essentially slander’

Speaking from experience, Ben Askren knows if Dana White “doesn’t get exactly what he wants, he just starts crapping on people” – as is the case with Francis Ngannou.

Like [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag], [autotag]Ben Askren[/autotag] had his war of words with UFC CEO [autotag]Dana White[/autotag].

Last week, White went off on Ngannou by criticizing his character and insisting that he ran away from a fight with Jon Jones by opting to sign with PFL. Askren identifies with Ngannou, recounting his prior experience negotiating with the UFC.

Askren came close to signing with the UFC in 2013, but it never materialized. He was an undefeated Bellator welterweight champion who had defended his title four times, finishing out his contract after a TKO win over Andrey Koreshkov on July 31, 2013.

After White expressed interest in signing Askren, he changed his tune, which caught Askren off guard.

“Dana spent years lying, saying I didn’t want to fight the best, I didn’t want challenges, I was running away, and that couldn’t have been further from the truth,” Askren said on his “Funky and the Champ” show with Daniel Cormier. “So, it sucked to have this guy – it’s essentially slander, saying things about me that I knew weren’t true. Dana has this part of his personality when he can’t get what he wants, and in that case, he didn’t offer me a contract, so he kind of got what he wanted.

“But then I think because I was continuing to have success and people were continuing to follow me, he wanted me off in a dark corner where everyone ignored me or something. But he’s done the same thing with Cyborg, I believe Randy Couture had a similar experience, now Francis, but there’s this weird part of Dana’s personality where, if he doesn’t get exactly what he wants, he just starts crapping on people. And because he has a big microphone and he’s generally very truthful and generally correct, people just believe him.”

Askren went on to sign with ONE Championship, where he captured the promotion’s welterweight title and defended it four times. He finally joined the UFC in 2018 after ONE traded him for Demetrious Johnson. Askren submitted Robbie Lawler in his UFC debut in March 2019 but then went on to get finished in back-to-back fights against Jorge Masvidal and Demian Maia before retiring.

Looking back, Askren wished he could have signed with the UFC earlier.

“I wanted to fight the best in 2013 and anytime forward,” Askren continued. “And so then he got me in 2019 when I probably should have had hip replacement prior to that, but it was like, ‘Hey, this is my opportunity, I’m going to take it. I don’t care if I’m not optimized where I should be. I get an opportunity, I take an opportunity, and I’m not going to complain about it.’ But, yeah, I would have loved to have that in 2013.”

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Video: UFC CEO Dana White beefs with Francis Ngannou, PFL. Who’s right?

What to make between the Dana White vs. Francis Ngannou and PFL back and forth? We discuss on “Spinning Back Clique.”

There was some big cross-promotional trash talk this past week.

PFL’s [autotag]Donn Davis[/autotag] had some bold claims following their pay-er-view event PFL: Battle of the Giants, and those comments rubbed UFC CEO [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] the wrong way. And as expected, White fired back at Davis while also taking a shot at former UFC heavyweight champion [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag], who left the promotion after fighting out his UFC contract in 2022 to fight under the PFL banner.

Were Davis’ comments uncalled-for? Should he continue to agitate and fire shots at White and the UFC? Will White come to terms with Ngannou and his departure from the promotion?

MMA Junkie’s Brian “Goze” Garcia, Dan Tom, Danny Segura, and host “Gorgeous” George discuss the latest headlines in the White vs. Ngannou and PFL beef.

Watch their discussion in the video above, and don’t miss this week’s complete episode of “Spinning Back Clique” below on YouTube.

https://youtube.com/live/h6-QMNMPZ9A

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Overreaction Time: Ilia Topuria era upon us, Khamzat Chimaev the boogeyman, Dana White goes too far, more!

Check out the latest episode of “Overreaction Time” as host Simon Samano and Nolan King cover the fallout from UFC 308 and much more.

The time for overreacting is here!

Check out the latest episode of “Overreaction Time” at noon ET/9 a.m. PT as host Simon Samano and MMA Junkie reporter Nolan King debate these “overreactions” on the following topics in mixed martial arts:

[autotag]Ilia Topuria[/autotag] will STILL be UFC featherweight champion at the end of 2025.
[autotag]Khamzat Chimaev[/autotag] is unstoppable and therefore his UFC title reign is inevitable.
Forget about [autotag]Max Holloway[/autotag] and [autotag]Robert Whittaker[/autotag] ever reclaiming UFC titles.
[autotag]Dana White[/autotag] is COMPLETELY out of bounds and full of sh*t when it comes to [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag].
The antitrust settlement approval feels like a bigger win for the UFC than the fighters.
Monday’s headline will read: ‘[autotag]Brandon Moreno[/autotag], [autotag]Rose Namajunas[/autotag] primed for UFC title shots’

Watch the full episode in the video above.

Dana White insists Francis Ngannou ran from UFC and Jon Jones fight, criticizes his character

The war of words between Francis Ngannou and Dana White continued when White’s latest salvo blasted Ngannou’s character.

ABU DHABI – The old adage about three sides to every divorce – each side, plus the truth – no doubt comes in to play in MMA on the regular.

That likely is the case in the ongoing war of words between former UFC heavyweight champion and current PFL heavyweight superfights champ [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag] and his ex-promoter, UFC CEO [autotag]Dana White[/autotag], who Saturday brought his latest salvo when he told MMA Junkie he has a personal dislike for Ngannou that goes back years, prior to when he became the UFC heavyweight champion.

But recency bias and revisionist history also seem to come into play in MMA on the regular, and though he touted Ngannou as the proverbial “baddest man on the planet” while he was his heavyweight titleholder – and even famously said [autotag]Jon Jones[/autotag] should reconsider moving to heavyweight, where Ngannou would be waiting, and should drop to middleweight, instead – White now says Ngannou ran from Jones, and then White got what he wanted, which was Ngannou out of the company.

“(Ngannou) didn’t want that fight (with Jones),” White told MMA Junkie after UFC 308 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. “He could have stayed and took that fight. He didn’t want that fight. Tom Aspinall deserves that fight.”

Former light heavyweight champion Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC), who won the vacant belt against Ciryl Gane after Ngannou left the UFC for the PFL, is set to fight former champ Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in three weeks in the UFC 309 main event at Madison Square Garden. Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) currently holds the interim heavyweight title and presumably will fight the Jones-Miocic winner.

Ngannou (17-3) maintains he left in a contract dispute, and this past week said he suspects White has been hoping for him to fail outside the UFC. Since he left, Ngannou lost two boxing matches to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, then made his PFL debut with a quick first-round finish of 2023 champ Renan Ferreira in the PFL: Battle of the Giants pay-per-view headliner eight days ago in Saudi Arabia.

Instead, White pointed to Ngannou’s fight against Derrick Lewis at UFC 226, one fight after he lost a title shot to Miocic in January 2018. That bout, which Lewis won by decision, has been widely panned as one of the worst heavyweight fights in the promotion’s history – at least relative to the expectations on paper going into it.

“When have you ever heard a story in all the years (about us owing a fighter money)? We’ve been a business, even when it was upside down, where we owed somebody money – never happened. So he’s full of sh*t there. Then (he says) I lost? I didn’t lose anything. I was done with Francis after the – he actually owes me money, because we had to watch that fight with him and the ‘Black Beast.’ He should actually pay me back for that fight, and all of you. And me praying for (him to fail) – trust me: I don’t think about Francis that much.

“You guys asked me the question about the PFL (last week), and I responded. Other than that, the only one who’s praying for his demise is probably the PFL, because they signed a sh*tty contract with a guy that doesn’t deliver any numbers and ticket sales or pay-per-views, and they’ve got to keep paying this guy for however long. Good for him – not good for them.”

In recent months, White has maintained a stance that Jones is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, despite the fact he has fought just twice in the past five years. But he said in spite of that, his personal thoughts on Ngannou go back a lot farther than his contract dispute.

White implied that in his opinion, the quality of Ngannou’s character was not in line with the kind of fighter he wants to have part of the promotion, but did not explicitly detail reasons why.

“Let me tell you what: There were two guys here. I wanted to cut him. Some day, I’ll tell you the story,” White said. “I was all about Francis in the beginning, and then I found out who Francis was. I told the two guys who asked me not to cut Francis, ‘When somebody shows you who they are, believe them.’ Believe me: I have no sleepless nights over Francis leaving.

“I didn’t like Francis as a person – wasn’t a guy I wanted to do business with. I didn’t like Francis. My boys were telling me he’s misunderstood, and I told them when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. It wasn’t about him becoming the heavyweight champion of the world. Francis isn’t a good guy. He plays the good guy – ‘I don’t understand the (English) language’ – so he seems like he’s a nice guy. He’s not. He’s just not a guy that I wanted to be in business with, period, end of story, whether he became the champion or not.”

As for the chances of White figuring out a way to have Jones and Ngannou fight each other, don’t count on it as long as Jones is in the UFC and White calls the shots.

Although the MMA world at large only really heard rumblings of a soured White-Ngannou working relationship in the months leading up to his departure from the UFC, White told MMA Junkie the bad vibes go back at least around seven years.

“We’ll never be in business together (again). I mean, you can tell: We don’t like each other,” White said. “And this goes way back. This goes back to before the first Stipe fight (at UFC 220 in Jaunary 2018). He pulled some sh*t before the first Stipe fight, and I said, ‘I’m done with this guy.’ And then Stipe beat the sh*t out of him – great night – and we never had a relationship after that.”

After his loss to Miocic, Ngannou lost to Lewis in mid-2018. White was publicly critical of him during the period of those two losses and said his ego got the best of him.

Later that year, Ngannou knocked out Curtis Blaydes in 45 seconds and won a bonus. He put away former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez in 26 seconds. He stopped former champ Junior dos Santos in 71 seconds. He knocked out Jairzinho Rozenstruik in 20 seconds to get a title shot with Miocic.

After he finished Miocic in the second round, he defended his title against Gane in Jaunary 2022, then left the promotion after his contract was up.

Ngannou’s backstory of his rise from poverty in Africa to homeless on the streets of Paris before he discovered MMA is a famous part of MMA lore. In April, the 38-year-old suffered the tragic death of his 15-month-old son Kobe.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.

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Francis Ngannou takes high road after Dana White gripes about UFC departure: ‘What’s the problem here?’

When it comes to Dana White’s continued attempts to paint his UFC departure a certain way, Francis Ngannou is doing his best to go high.

When it comes to [autotag]Dana White[/autotag]’s continued attempts to paint his UFC departure a certain way, [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag] is doing his best to take the high road – but he also wants to keep it real.

On Thursday, White was asked to share his thoughts on Ngannou’s performance in his first-round TKO win over Renan Ferreira this past weekend at PFL: Battle of the Giants. The fight marked Ngannou’s return to mixed martial arts for the first time since defending the UFC heavyweight championship in his final promotional appearance against Ciryl Gane in January 2022. One year later, Ngannou left the UFC to sign with the PFL.

Rather than give his take on Ngannou’s in-cage performance, White went out of his way to re-hash how things ended with Ngannou – at least according to him.

“(His performance) was better than Donn Davis’ – way better,” White said with a laugh. “Listen, man, I’m going to tell you what I think about Francis: Francis is all about the money. Francis left because he knew if he fought Jon Jones and didn’t win, it would hurt his chances of making the money he wanted to make. But realistically his deal was bigger here. His deal was bigger here if he stayed in the UFC. I think I told this story a million times. They can deny it all they want. Why the f*ck would I lie? What do I care? It doesn’t matter to me one way or the other.”

White later said that he wanted to release Ngannou in 2018 after consecutive losses to Stipe Miocic and Derrick Lewis, but he didn’t because someone “begged” him not to.

Ngannou responds directly to White

Ngannou can’t seem to understand why White won’t stop talking bad about him.

“Regardless of everything that happened, I’m not about him,” Ngannou said Friday in an interview with Sirius XM Fight Nation. “I went out there, did a fight, had a good fight for my son’s memory, but the guy can’t stand – I don’t know what is his problem. He can make everything up as he wants. That’s his problem. I think he needs to make peace with himself. …

“(He) could’ve just said, ‘We didn’t find an agreement. We couldn’t come to a deal, but good luck to him.’ That’s it, you know? Good for him, and we continue our lives. What’s the problem here? I think the problem is he can’t handle this loss.”

And that’s a point Ngannou wants to drive home

“Dana has lost in this situation, and the only thing is that he cannot stand it,” Ngannou said. “Bro, I won everything.”

A big reason why Ngannou couldn’t come to terms with the UFC on a new contract was because the promotion wouldn’t support his desire to venture into boxing. The PFL obliged that request and after signing with the promotion, Ngannou took part in two lucrative fights with Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua in October 2023 and this past March.

While he lost both matchups in the ring, Ngannou widely has been lauded for finding his way out of a restrictive UFC deal and maximizing his earnings. Ngannou can only imagine how much that bothers White.

“I’m sure he’s been praying for my downfall, but I just keep doing my thing, rising,” Ngannou said. “Since I left the UFC, in many senses, I’m more than what I was. …

“Now I have made more money than I would have ever made in the UFC. I would say maybe twice the money that I could have made in my entire UFC career if I had continued in the UFC. I’m not just saying from the moment that I stopped. Either way, if I have made less money, if I’m not making enough money that I could’ve made in the UFC, that would be my problem. Why is he so pissed about me not making that much money? C’mon, man, live your life.”