Cameroonian Francis Ngannou, holder of the heavyweight championship belt, has not renewed his contract with the UFC, revealed Dana White, the boss of the most powerful MMA league, on the sidelines of an evening of fights Saturday in Las Vegas.
"We've been trying to work out a deal with Francis for two years," White said.
He was offered a deal that would have made him the highest-paid heavyweight in the organization's history.
And he didn't want to.
He thinks he's in a position to fight worse opponents for more money, we'll let him do that.
We will release him from his contract.
Desires from elsewhere for a while
Knee surgery in January 2022, Ngannou, whose contract with the UFC was coming to an end at the end of 2022, had not fought for the organization since defending his title against Frenchman Ciryl Gane, still in January 2022. Since , the 36-year-old Cameroonian, who has twenty fights for seventeen victories and three defeats, had multiplied his desires elsewhere, not hiding his desire to fight in English boxing.
Ngannou captured the UFC heavyweight title in March 2021 by defeating K.-O.
the American Stipe Miocic, after a first failure in January 2018, still against Miocic.
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