Dana White opens up about altercation with Francis Ngannou's manager
UFC president Dana White has given an update on the current state of his relationship with Francis Ngannou and his manager.
It was recently announced that Ciryl Gane and Derrick Lewis will fight for the UFC interim heavyweight title at UFC 265. That date was initially reserved for Ngannou vs Lewis 2 but after it came out that Francis wasn’t ready for that date, Dana White decided to push ahead with alternative plans and made the interim title fight.
“You know it’s funny, I wasn’t even talking about him [Marquel Martin]. I was just responding to him. He’s not the one - believe me, he’s not the one. They know who the one is, it’s not him. I was responding to him saying this was a shock to us and I said ‘no it wasn’t’, you knew this was coming and it’s not a shock at all, you’re full of s***.
“I think the big issue with the other guy is we had a deal and he came back and said no we don’t, after we had already said we had a deal. We’d already agreed to a deal.”
Dana White clears the air - sort of...
That led to a war of words between Dana White and Marquel Martin, Ngannou’ manager, on social media - with the boss providing an update on what’s happened since then during an interview with TheMacLife.
Dana White has never been one to shy away from saying what he thinks and as we look ahead to the future, we’re pretty confident in saying that trend is going to continue.
The time frame in which UFC 265 falls into may have been the big issue for Francis Ngannou. However, you’d have to imagine fighter pay comes into the equation too, especially in the wake of Jon Jones’ big demands.
Dana White tries his hardest to put on the best fights for the fans but in equal measure, he also wants to do what’s best for business and for the UFC as a whole.
This often manifests into feuds with fighters, which appears to be the situation we find ourselves in once again.