The Octagon is yet to See the Last of Francis Ngannou-Israel Adesanya
Though UFC president Dana White continues to insist that Francis Ngannou is done inside the Octagon, ‘ the Last Stylebender’ Israel Adesanya isn’t buying that.
‘The Predator’ turned his back on the UFC in January after almost two years of futile wheeling and dealings. Last month, the ex-heavyweight title holder disclosed having signed a landmark lucrative contract with the Professional Fighters League to become the organization’s chairman for the PFL’s expansion into Africa.
Low Kick MMA reports that with the announcement of the deal, Dana White was very reproving of both the Cameroonian and the PFL. “Based on what I know about the deal, which is not much, it makes no sense to me,” White said at a post-fight press event.
“You’re going to pay a guy not to fight for a year, and it’s already been like [14] months. He’s fought three times in the last three years.”
White has also held on more than one instance that Francis Ngannou will never event inside the Octagon again after the promotion sought to sign him for months without success.
“We negotiated with him for years,” White said when asked if Ngannou was ever going to return to the UFC.
“It’s over, that’s over. He’ll never be in the UFC again. … I never say never, but I’ll give you a never on that one. We tried.”
"Francis wants to take zero risks"
Dana White on Francis Ngannou pic.twitter.com/u3NgCnniLf
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) May 22, 2023
But ‘The Stylebender’ is of the view that the MMA World haven’t seen the last of ‘The Predator’ Inside the Octagon.
While on the set of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, ‘The Last Stylebender’ maintained that the story between Ngannou and the UFC is far from over and counts on ‘The Predator’ returning to the Octagon one day despite White’s averment.
“I’m proud of him because his story is very unique, even before he was in the UFC,” Adesanya said of Ngannou.
“The story’s not over yet, everybody needs to chill and just watch…everyone wants to be first…this isn’t a guy that just quits. Dana’s said some stuff in the past [about women never fighting in the UFC]…look where we are now!
“I think he’ll do what he does and come back, and then they’ll pay him what he deserves, what he’s earned, because they f***ed him for a long time.”
There is hardly an occasion where Dana White has said no to something and stuck to his guns with Paul Daley the exception. He stayed committed to his averment on that issue, but Daley isn’t Ngannou.
Should ‘The Predator’ go and make some major news splashes in the PFL, it’s very certain that the UFC will make a turn around when it’s contract time and offer Ngannou a huge payday for the fight everyone in the world wants to see.
