"His ego ran away with him" - When Dana White foresaw Francis Ngannou's 'fall' in the UFC
Francis Ngannou is on top of the world after going toe-to-toe with arguably one of the greatest heavyweight boxers in history. The 37-year-old Cameroonian gave Tyson Fury everything he could handle.
Although the judges scored a split-decision win for Fury, Ngannou’s moral victory became the prominent storyline heading out of the October 28 event. One person who miscalculated Francis Ngannou’s potential was UFC CEO Dana White.
‘The Predator’ hit the roughest patch of his combat sports career in 2018 when he suffered back-to-back losses against Stipe Miocic and Derrick Lewis.
The lackluster performances in both fights put a question mark on Ngannou’s potential and Dana White added fuel to the fire when he blamed "ego" for the heavyweight’s downward career trajectory:
“I think that he had a pretty quick rise here and obviously the fight over Alistair Overeem catapulted him. Everybody was talking about him. I thought he was going to be the next guy. I think his ego ran away with him. Big time. I can tell you that his ego absolutely did run away. The minute that happens to you in the fight game you see what happens – you start to fall apart.”
White added:
“I had some personal encounters with him, as did other people in the organization and this guy’s ego was so out of control. Before the Stipe fight he took off and went to France. Didn’t even really train for that fight. And you see the results. Well, then he comes back and he did train, but the ego is what hurt Francis Ngannou.”
Watch Dana White make the statement from the 12:47 mark of the video below:
White’s remarks came after Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis put on one of the dullest fights in UFC history in the UFC 226 co-main event.
But fast forward to 2023 and the comeback seems complete. In January, 'The Predator' left the UFC as the promotion’s reigning heavyweight champion and put on a strong performance against the WBC heavyweight kingpin in a crossover contest.
Francis Ngannou plans to compete in MMA and boxing going forward
Francis Ngannou may have opened doors to a lot of opportunities after the Tyson Fury fight. However, he is not leaving MMA behind and plans to compete in both sports going forward. While speaking to ESPN after the fight, Ngannou said:
"I can do both. Nothing is stopping me from doing both. If I have the skill for both of them, why not? As for right now, I have a deal with PFL and I’m intending to fight MMA again. I love it. I’m more comfortable. I still love it. I might do some MMA fights, but I’m still going to do boxing. I never intended to just step over and do one fight and just go out.”
Watch Ngannou make the statement from the 1:48 mark of the video below: