"I'm 100 percent with him" - Francis Ngannou supports Jake Paul in his bid to increase fighter pay
Francis Ngannou has voiced his support for Jake Paul's crusade to increase fighter pay in the UFC.
Paul has been calling out UFC president Dana White and publicly discussing the topic of fighter pay for quite some time now. Ngannou, who's currently embroiled in a contract dispute with the UFC, recently claimed he is "100 percent" behind the YouTuber-turned-boxer's cause.
In a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Ngannou said:
"I follow all those stuff and I am aware of what's happening. You know Paul has his own way of communicating, which is a little bit different. Maybe not the same way as I will. But in the meantime, I can't blame him. I'm 100 percent with him for what he says."
'The Predator' added:
"When he claimed for fighter healthcare, I am 100 percent down with that. He claimed for fighter pay increase, I'm a 1000 percent down for that. So the fighters are not protected, they are all out there on their own and nobody look up to them... They are putting their body on the line for something. At least [give them] healthcare."
Watch Francis Ngannou discuss the feud between Jake Paul and Dana White below:
Ngannou's current UFC deal expires at the end of the year. It is highly unlikely that he will fight again in 2022 due to a knee injury he sustained while training for his UFC 270 clash against Ciryl Gane. It remains to be seen whether he will feature in the octagon again.
Jake Paul recently congratulated Israel Adesanya for his new lucrative UFC contract
Francis Ngannou hasn't had any luck with a lucrative UFC deal as of yet. Meanwhile, his African brother, Israel Adesanya, recently signed a new deal with the promotion a few days ahead of UFC 271. The new deal reportedly makes Adesanya one of the highest-paid mixed martial artists of all time.
Jake Paul, who first met Adesanya after his victory over Nate Robinson in late 2020, shared a congratulatory message to 'The Last Stylebender' on Twitter. He tweeted:
"Congrats to my guy @stylebender - excited for this weekend. My boy should be getting at least $7 million"
Congrats to my guy @stylebender - excited for this weekend.
My boy should be getting at least $7 million a fight as a champ of his stature and following globally…
Adesanya made his fourth successful title defense against Robert Whittaker in a rematch at Houston's Toyota Center last weekend. Having recently signed a new multi-fight deal, he is expected to stay atop the UFC middleweight division for many years to come.