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This weekend saw the stunning announcement that UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou is no longer with the promotion after the two parties failed to come to terms on a new contract.
UFC president Dana White didn’t seem too worried about losing his heavyweight champion. White's attitude begs another question, should the promotion really be panicking about the exit of Francis Ngannou?
The truth is that while ‘The Predator’ is the best heavyweight on the planet right now, even so, White and company probably aren’t too worried about his departure.
Here are five reasons why the UFC shouldn’t care about losing Francis Ngannou.
#5. Options for Francis Ngannou outside the UFC are few and far between
Back in 2008, the UFC did everything in their power to prevent then-heavyweight champion Randy Couture from departing the promotion. In contrast, Dana White didn’t seem all that bothered at all when he announced Francis Ngannou’s departure this weekend.
What’s the difference between the situations? Put simply, Couture had a number of massive options outside the UFC that could well have hurt the promotion.
Most notably, had he been able to set up a fight with former PRIDE champion Fedor Emelianenko, there’s an argument that the bout would’ve been bigger, both from a drawing perspective and from a sporting one, than any that the UFC could’ve produced at the time.
Ngannou, though, is in a different situation altogether. Where Couture had plenty of potential opponents outside the UFC, including Josh Barnett and Alistair Overeem, as well as Emelianenko, these days there aren’t many top fighters outside the promotion.
Who is ‘The Predator’ likely to fight? A clash with Bellator MMA heavyweight kingpin Ryan Bader seems pointless given that ‘Darth’ is better known as a 205lber, while ONE Championship’s Anatoly Malykhin is basically an unknown amongst casual fans.
PFL, meanwhile, has no really notable heavyweights, and while BKFC have apparently made Ngannou an offer, moving to bare-knuckle boxing would make little sense.
Essentially, unless he switches to boxing – which would be a huge risk – there’s nobody to challenge ‘The Predator’ outside the UFC. In that sense, it really does look like he’s willing to fight lesser opponents for more money as White claimed.
#4. Francis Ngannou wasn’t a proven drawing card for the UFC
If Francis Ngannou were a Conor McGregor-level superstar drawing card for the UFC, then there’s no doubt that Dana White and company would’ve moved heaven and earth to keep him.
However, there’s just no evidence right now that ‘The Predator’ is even a mid-level draw on pay-per-view.
It’s hard to find the exact data as the UFC don’t tend to officially release their pay-per-view buyrates, particularly in the ESPN+ era. However, estimates for UFC 270, which saw Ngannou defend his heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane, suggested the show drew around 300k buys.
That isn’t exactly a big number, even by modern standards.
UFC 260, meanwhile, which saw Ngannou dethrone Stipe Miocic to claim the title, earned the lowest ratings of 2021 for its preliminary card. That usually suggests a low buyrate, although no data has been made available for that event.
Essentially, while the UFC prides itself on being a sporting organization that pits the best against the best, the truth is that their bigger goal is to put on fights that will draw the most money.
Ngannou has never proven himself to be a big draw for the company, and to that end, the promotion can definitely let him go without worrying too much.
#3. The UFC can’t be seen to break their contract structure for one fighter
In Dana White’s announcement about Francis Ngannou’s departure from the UFC, he went to great lengths to suggest that the promotion had offered ‘The Predator’ one of the biggest contracts in their history.
According to White, Ngannou would’ve been the highest paid heavyweight to ever fight in the octagon, surpassing Brock Lesnar. Lesnar, for the record, reportedly made a flat rate of $2.5 million plus a cut of the pay-per-view revenue when he last fought at UFC 200.
However, money wasn’t the only issue for Ngannou. According to most reports, ‘The Predator’ had his heart set on boxing, too, and wasn’t going to re-sign with the UFC unless they allowed him to pursue this dream.
Put simply, though, the UFC just couldn’t break their contract structure by allowing Ngannou to box professionally. Sure, they allowed Conor McGregor to fight Floyd Mayweather in 2017, but that fight was a one-off that made the UFC, as well as the fighters, untold millions.
More to the point, with Mayweather being known as one of boxing’s all-time greats, it didn’t matter that he beat McGregor, as ‘The Notorious’ had star power that’d already surpassed the sport of MMA.
On the other hand, if Dana White and company had allowed their heavyweight champion to box, not only would they risk MMA’s reputation as a whole, but it’d also likely open the floodgates for other fighters looking to make a quick payday by boxing, too.
With that in mind, it simply wouldn’t have been a smart option for the UFC to take to acquiesce to Ngannou’s demands. And if ‘The Predator’ wasn’t willing to back down from them, then it was probably the sensible thing to let him go.
#2. Francis Ngannou may damage his reputation by boxing anyway
If Francis Ngannou really has got his heart set on boxing, particularly if that turns out to be a clash with Tyson Fury, then there’s a chance that he’ll return to MMA as severely damaged goods.
Ngannou carries perhaps more power in his hands than any fighter in MMA history, but he also isn’t the best technical striker, leaving himself wide open at times even if he’s never been knocked out.
Add in the fact that boxing is a very different sport to MMA, and it’s hard to imagine the 36-year-old Ngannou having any success there, particularly coming off a serious knee injury.
Therefore, the chances are that Ngannou’s reputation as the ‘baddest man on the planet’ could take a real dent if he does fight Fury at some stage.
Would that be a risk worth taking for the UFC, who have prided themselves on supposedly having the toughest fighter on the planet on their roster for a long time now? Absolutely not.
The idea that their heavyweight champion could be beaten badly in the boxing ring but could return to continue to dominate the octagon would be almost unpalatable.
If ‘The Predator’ is indeed dead set on pursuing such a risky – and likely unfruitful – path, the UFC may well see themselves as being better off as far away from it as possible.
#1. The UFC has never struggled after losing top fighters before
While the UFC hasn’t seen a reigning champion abandon the promotion since B.J. Penn moved to Japanese promotion K-1 in 2004, they definitely haven’t been immune to losing top fighters over the years.
Even in the years since 2011, when the UFC essentially claimed a monopoly over the sport of MMA by buying out its nearest rivals like Strikeforce and PRIDE, Dana White and company haven’t been able to keep all of their athletes happy.
Big-name stars and former champions like Gegard Mousasi, Benson Henderson and Rory MacDonald all departed for Bellator MMA, while the likes of Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson moved to ONE Championship.
And while other big stars like Henry Cejudo and Jon Jones have never left the UFC, they did sit out for lengthy periods to attempt to force the UFC to open their purse strings some more.
The one thing that’s remained constant, though? For every top fighter to depart the UFC, the promotion has found another to replace them, and has always maintained its position as the world’s biggest MMA company.
Will that change with the departure of Francis Ngannou? Even though ‘The Predator’ will be leaving as the world’s top heavyweight, the answer is no.
The UFC has already set up its next heavyweight title fight between Ciryl Gane and Jones, and by the time that bout comes around, the chances are that fans will have already forgotten about Ngannou, who hasn’t fought since January 2022 anyway.
Were the UFC to lose Ngannou, as well as four or five other big stars to an upstart promotion, then perhaps they’d be worried. To lose one fighter, though, however great he is, is simply a drop in the ocean for Dana White and company right now.
