Jake Paul rips into Dana White for Francis Ngannou comment with 3.5-year-old eye-opening video: "Now the narrative doesn’t suit”
Following Power Slap 9 in Abu Dhabi, UFC CEO Dana White was asked about former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou’s recent triumphant return to MMA. White doubled down on emphasizing that Ngannou's UFC exit was "all about the money," as he's done previously.
White claimed that if 'The Predator' had fought Jon Jones and didn’t win, it would have impacted the money he wanted to make. Alluding to the notion that Ngannou took the less challenging and more lucrative route by joining the PFL, he said:
"Francis Ngannou is all about the money. Francis left because he knew that if he fought Jon Jones and didn't win, it would hurt his chances of making the money that he wanted to make. But, realistically, his deal was bigger here. His deal was bigger here if he stayed in the UFC.”
White asserted that Ngannou would've made more money if he stayed in the UFC. He added that after Ngannou’s two back-to-back losses to Stipe Miocic and Derrick Lewis in 2018, he considered cutting the Cameroonian from the roster.
"I was gonna cut Francis when he lost two in a row. I was gonna cut him, yeah. Somebody around here begged me not to do it.”
Check out Dana White’s comments below:
Reacting to this, YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul stepped in to defend Ngannou and took to X to share a video of White at the UFC 260 post-fight press conference back in 2021.
Ngannou won the heavyweight title at said pay-per-view at the UFC Apex with a KO win over Miocic, and the UFC head honcho subsequently claimed that Jones should consider moving to middleweight rather than heavyweight. In the caption of his post, Paul called out White's contradictory comments.
“3 years ago he was telling Jon Jones to move down to 185 to avoid @francis_ngannou and that Jon didn’t really want to fight Francis…but now the narrative doesn’t suit Dana…”
Check out Jake Paul's tweet below:
Dana White comments on PFL champion eyeing future in the UFC: "Nobody wants to fight in the f**king PFL"
Dana White and PFL co-founder Donn Davis are going back and forth in the media, with Davis claiming that PFL's latest event performed better that any UFC event this year.
In the same presser following a Power Slap event, White was asked about Usman Nurmagomedov, the PFL lightweight champion, who expressed his desire to come to the UFC once his contract with PFL ends. Taking a dig at Davis, White said:
“All of their good people wanna be over here anyway, so I would imagine that eventually he’ll be here... Nobody wants to fight in the f**king PFL, except for Francis.”
Check out Dana White’s comments below (3:57):