What’s going on with UFC’s heavyweight division after Francis Ngannou’s departure?

Jon Jones sat out of the UFC for over three years due to his salary. Francis Ngannou is now leaving the UFC as the heavyweight champion of the world, and the crux of his reasoning also lies in the pay.

The heavyweight division has been in a state of flux for the past three years. Jones was last seen in an octagon successfully defending his UFC light heavyweight title against Dominick Reyes, by a slim margin.

He vacated the title and moved up to heavyweight soon after, after nearly a decade of dominance at 205 pounds.

Ngannou would win the heavyweight title in February 2021 with a savage knockout of Stipe Miocic, commonly regarded as one of, if not the greatest, heavyweight champion in the promotion’s history.

Immediately, mouths watered at the prospect of Jones, a man easily in the conversation for the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, and Ngannou, a man who has registered the world’s most powerful punch, colliding.

At his peak, Jones is a force of nature that no opponent could find a way to stifle. Similarly, Ngannou has that lights-out power that makes him so exciting to watch.

As UFC boss Dana White once proudly revealed, ‘His punches equal 96 horsepower. That’s the same as being hit by a Ford Escort that is going as fast as it can go and is more powerful than a 12 pound sledgehammer from above at full force. My God.’

Understandably, both competitors wanted career-defining compensation for one of the most enticing UFC bouts of all time. White condemned Jones’ request for ‘Deontay Wilder money’, referencing the £25m he made for his third fight with Tyson Fury.

As a result, the heavyweight division worked. Ngannou achieved just one crown defense from him with a decision victory over the talented Cyril Gane in January 2022. Once word broke that he would require knee surgery, it became apparent that his UFC career could to have finished.

Not as a result of the injury, of course. Ngannou only had a contract with the UFC because he was the champion and that automatically locked him up for another year.

Otherwise, his contract would have ended in early 2022, but the gold around his waist only gave the UFC another 12 months that they didn’t use to keep one of their prized assets.

Dana White has told me on record that the UFC has a history of keeping the fighters they really want. So what happened here?

“We offered Francis a deal that would have made him the highest-paid heavyweight in the history of the company, more than (Brock) Lesnar, more than anyone, and he turned the deal down,” White told reporters on UFC Fight Night. . 217 post-fight press conference.

‘We got to this point, and I’ve told you this before, if you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be here. I think Francis is in a place right now where he doesn’t want to take too many risks. He feels that he is in a good position where he can fight lesser opponents and earn more money.’

The Predator has been linked to a boxing match with Tyson Fury and even stepped into the ring after his win over Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium last April. Boxing is Ngannou’s first love, but even Conor McGregor knew that to really make his fortune, he would have to cross into a boxing ring.

Ngannou knows the same. Fury is one of the biggest names in the sport today and putting the undefeated king of heavyweights up against the UFC heavyweight champion who never lost his belt, and it turns out he packs the heaviest punch. in the world, is the recipe for a successful pay-per-view. . Even if he’s not in the same world as McGregor’s dance with Floyd Mayweather.

The only problem with betting on fighting Fury is predicting what the Gypsy King will do. Will he have another flirtation with WWE? Almost certainly at his Money in the Bank PPV at The O2 in July.

Are you busy taking ‘real’ fights? Yes, he will almost certainly fight Oleksandr Usyk in March. Would you make more money fighting Anthony Joshua? Again, almost certainly. Could you retire again? Absolutely!

After waiting for Ngannou and his next move, which in turn delayed Jones’ heavyweight debut, the UFC finally made its next move. A bulkier and more dangerous Jones will finally take his heavyweight bow against Ngannou’s latest foe in the UFC, Gane. A defeat that is the only one in the Frenchman’s curriculum.

Miocic, who has long pushed for a trilogy fight with Ngannou (he defeated the monstrous Cameroonian the first time they met) and also called out Jones in the interim, has already said he will fight the winner of the matchup between Jones and Win the March 4. .

So the UFC has lost the pivotal part of its myriad of blockbuster heavyweight matchups and, judging by White’s comments, bitterly. But, with the sad loss of Ngannou, Jones comes back in from the cold and picks quite possibly the next most dangerous available heavyweight to bow to him: a fascinating prospect.

Elsewhere at heavyweight, England’s Tom Aspinall had been moving towards title contention before suffering an MCL tear, meniscus tear and ACL damage during the latest UFC London event.

Tai Tuivasa is another young heavyweight who has captured the fans’ imagination, but successive knockout losses to Gane and then Sergei Pavlovich, another promising name in the division, mean he has more work to do to get to the top echelon.

For a man who holds all the cards in the world of MMA, White was mentored by Ngannou and then left to run back to his resident PR headache, Jones.

Who ironically spent most of his time on the sidelines not making white money because the UFC boss wouldn’t pay him to fight Ngannou.

Ngannou may have beaten White at his own game if he gets the massive payday with Fury, but his legacy won’t be the same without the Jones fight when he was there for all the parts. And for that, everyone deserves a share of the blame.