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Matt Schnell does not believe the claims that Francis Ngannou received a paycheck of only $600,000 for his fight at UFC 270.
During a recent interview with MMA Island, the UFC flyweight spoke about the issue of fighter pay. The 32-year-old disagreed with the heavyweight champion for claiming he was underpaid for his title defense against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270:
"[I]think it's woefully dishonest that Francis Ngannou is running around acting like he only made $600,000 dollars. I know for a fact, he got pay-per-view points, he got paid for Reebok, he got paid for this, paid for that. He probably made... way more than $600,000."
Catch the full Matt Schnell interview with MMA Island below:
Francis Ngannou is currently at a crossroads with the UFC on the issue of compensation. After the UFC 270 event on January 22, the California State Athletic Commission released the official purses that the fighters on the card received. As per a Twitter post by MMA Fighting's Shaheen Al-Shatti, 'The Predator' received a sum of $600,000.
Some time after the fight, a post surfaced on Twitter claiming that boxer Jack Dempsey made more money for a fight in the 1920s than Ngannou did for the UFC 270 event.
Ngannou also let his thoughts be known on the matter in an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour.
Francis Ngannou wants to fight Tyson Fury
Francis Ngannou wants to cross over into the boxing world and take on prominent heavyweight fighters like Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder. However, his current UFC contract prohibits 'The Predator' from doing so.
Both Fury and Ngannou have expressed interest in fighting each other on social media.
'The Gypsy King' recently spoke about the potential matchup in an interview with ESPN. Fury praised the Cameroonian's punching power and called him a "machine":
"Yeah, he's definitely a machine. That's for sure. He's definitely a good puncher and all that. And let's face it, it's not a wrestling match or no grabbing or anything. So, it's just a stand-up punching battle with small gloves on. He's got a big power... So, I would be interested in that."
Catch Tyson Fury's interview with ESPN below:
