Francis Ngannou is likely never returning to the UFC, but for the briefest of moments, the former heavyweight champion captured a whole lot of attention after his head coach mentioned on a podcast that “The Predator” might be open to that possibility.
While the comments from his head coach were blown out of proportion, Ngannou’s name even being mentioned had reigning UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones getting excited about that potential fight happening. Unless something dramatic changes, Ngannou is very much still part of the PFL’s future plans with hopes that he could eventually return to the boxing ring as well — an opportunity that just wasn’t presented to him in the UFC.
But with more than two years gone since he hit free agency, did Ngannou actually make a mistake leaving the UFC to sign a lucrative deal with the PFL?
“You’d have to define what a mistake is,” UFC legend Matt Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Because for his pockets, he did not make a mistake. Fighting Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, win or loss, he made a lot of f*cking money that he was not going to make in the UFC.
“Legacy wise, he’s already forgotten in terms of the heavyweight division in MMA. Legacy wise, I think it damaged his legacy tremendously. Had he won those boxing matches, that would have obviously helped his legacy a shit ton. For instance, after he fought Tyson Fury the first time, and a lot of us believe that he won, it was pretty close, debatable but I would argue he probably won. I don’t think anybody was arguing that it was a bad move at that point.”
Ngannou scored a knockdown on Fury, but he ended up on the wrong end of a decision loss. One fight later, Ngannou suffered a brutal knockout loss to Anthony Joshua before eventually returning to the PFL where he beat Renan Ferreira in his only fight with the promotion.
Brown believes the argument surrounding Ngannou’s choice is only based around hindsight being 20/20 and knowing that he lost both of the boxing matches to Fury and Joshua.
“It was after he lost and now the UFC is like whatever bro, do your thing,” Brown said. “Now everybody is asking if it was a mistake. But he made more money in those two matches that he would have made fighting in the UFC for the next 10 years. Was it a mistake on that part? No, but his legacy is going to suffer. He’s not going to be in the talks for the best heavyweight ever, period.
“Losing those two boxing matches is probably the worst thing that could have happened for him. It humanized him a lot.”
As much as those losses sting, Brown argues that Ngannou is still laughing all the way to the bank because those two boxing matches along probably paid him more than he would have made for the rest of his career in the UFC.
“Financially, again, it lined his pockets,” Brown said. “He did great. Ultimately that’s what this is, it’s prize fighting — he got the biggest prize. Who are we to say he made a mistake? So it depends on what you care about.
“Look he made his money. What it all comes down to, if he’s happy with that, then good for him. I think it’s tough for us to call it a mistake.”
While he certainly made more in the boxing ring than he did in MMA, Ngannou wouldn’t have earned peanuts fighting in the UFC, especially if he got booked for a matchup against somebody like Jones.
But Brown says the amount of money probably never mattered as much to Ngannou as the principle of how his contract negotiations played out with the UFC versus the control he now maintains over his own career.
“I’m going to guess where Francis is also looking as a pure businessman, the business side of it, his opposition to that is going to be well this fight brought in just arbitrary numbers $100 million and I’m getting $3 million of that and the UFC is getting $97 million of it where in boxing, I’m getting $50 million of it and they’re getting $50 million of it,” Brown said. “He’s going to be like why am I selling myself short here?
“Regardless of whether I need $50 million or $3 million would make me happy for the rest of my life, you feel like you’re being used a little bit. I think honestly that was probably a bigger role in it than him feeling like he needed that much money and him feeling like he’s a cog in the wheel versus being a wheel or just being used for something.”
At the end of the day, Brown says two things can be true simultaneously when examining the choices Ngannou made when he left the UFC, signed with the PFL and crossed over to boxing.
No one can argue that he didn’t earn the biggest payday possible with fights against Fury and Joshua — regardless of the outcome — and it’s almost impossible to ignore than his relevancy in the sport has changed dramatically now that Ngannou isn’t in the UFC and probably won’t ever compete there again.
“Does Francis care? Because I can tell you if I was in the situation, and I had $30 million, you probably wouldn’t hear from me either motherf*ckers,” Brown said with a laugh. “He might prefer it that way, too.
“Nobody cares about Francis at this point in terms of MMA, you don’t even hear people talking about him fighting. I don’t know how much people care about him even boxing anymore, but he probably got paid more than any [MMA fighter] in history except maybe Conor [McGregor].”
Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio
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