Dana White takes aim at Francis Ngannou, claims the UFC nearly cut ‘The Predator’ after loss to Derrick Lewis

UFC CEO Dana White has continued to take aim at Francis Ngannou.

White and Ngannou hadn’t seen eye-to-eye well before ‘The Predator’ left the UFC to sign with the PFL and box. But, following the Power Slap event on Thursday, White was speaking to the media and claimed he nearly cut Ngannou before he became the heavyweight champ.

Dana White doubles down on his comments that Francis Ngannou would’ve made more money with the UFC, and reveals that the UFC nearly cut Ngannou after he lost twice in a row 😬

“Francis is all about the money… why the f*** would I lie?…

There’s a much deeper story to this… pic.twitter.com/L7mS46Ygvd

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) October 24, 2024

“Francis is all about the money. Francis left because he knew if he fought Jon Jones and didn’t win, it would hurt his chances of making the money he wanted to make,” Dana White said to the media. “But, realistically, his deal was bigger here, his deal was bigger here had he stayed in the UFC. I think I told this story, a million times, they can deny it all they want, what do I care?

“It doesn’t matter to me one way or another. I was going to cut Francis when he lost two in a row. I was going to cut him (after the Derrick Lewis fight),” White continued. “Someone around here begged me not to do it. So, it wouldn’t have mattered to me, one way or another. There is a much deeper story to this whole thing, and he would have made more money had he stayed in the UFC. He didn’t want to fight Jon Jones, that’s a fact, and we are moving on.”

It’s an interesting comment from Dana White that he nearly cut Francis Ngannou from the UFC. His loss to Derrick Lewis was lackluster as neither threw much volume and it was a boring fight. The loss also dropped Ngannou to 6-2 in the UFC. But, the UFC opted not to release him.

Ngannou ended up going on a six-fight winning streak to end his UFC tenure. That also included him becoming the heavyweight champ and defending the belt once.

Dana White disputes Francis Ngannou’s boxing earnings

Following Francis Ngannou leaving the UFC to box and sign with the PFL, he claimed his earnings were multiple times more than what he made in the UFC.

However, White says that isn’t true and he was offered more money in the UFC than he made in either of his boxing fights.

“I know all the sh*t that you people don’t know, and I don’t care what everybody says,” White said after a Contender Series event (via MMAJunkie). “It doesn’t matter to me. But that’s a fact. He was offered more money because I know the real numbers.”

Ultimately, Ngannou made his decision and went 0-2 in boxing before making his return to MMA last week and scoring a TKO win over Renan Ferreira.