Francis Ngannou signs with PFL, has beef with ONE Championship

In the PFL’s announcement, they confirmed Ngannou would be the chairman for PFL Africa as the organization looks to build a presence in the region to hold an event there in 2024. During the initial negotiation, Ngannou said that he was already ‘fifty-per cent in’ due to the willingness of his new employer to facilitate ‘The Predator’s request.

”Even the fighter advising [advisory] board, you know, something that I asked for, they had it already. That was something that was already in the PFL.” Helwani asked Ngannou if he was already leaning towards the PFL back in January, soon after Ngannou had left the UFC, or was his mind open at that point? ”I didn’t have my mind set on the PFL, but as they say, Mom knows best”(referencing the picture of Ngannou’s mother wearing a PFL shirt.)

The discussion then turned to the length of Ngannou’s contract and whether it was for a specified period or related to several fights.

”It’s not about years; it’s about fights. Let’s just say it’s not for many fights; it’s a multiple-fight deal, but most importantly, what you have to understand here is that it’s a strategic partnership”. When pressed further for specifics, ‘The Predator’ was reluctant to confirm how many fights the deal was for, preferring to keep his cards close to his chest. Ngannou confirmed that he would not be fighting in PFL’s tournament format but solely on the pay-per-view events.

Ngannou then confirmed that his base salary at PFL will be more than $2 million per fight. In an extraordinary revelation, Ngannou requested that his opponents get a guaranteed base salary of at least $2 million as part of his deal.

”You know this is unprecedented, right? In the history of MMA, I’ve never heard anyone ask for something like this. Why was it so important for you to do this?” asked Helwani.

”If they give me a lot of money and then don’t pay my opponent, I will feel like I came and collected everything. They [MMA promotions] can cut somebodies pay [in order to] to pay you, and I didn’t want to have that feeling that it’s all about me. It’s about fights, and it’s about fighters, and let’s make sure that the guy I’m fighting is going to have his own money and is going to have a proper training camp and is going to [be able to] afford a good training partner and is going to [be able to] afford anything that he needs, to be at that [top] level. I didn’t even have to fight for it. They [PFL] were just like, it’s done”.

A stumbling block in Ngannou’s contract negotiations with the UFC was the fact that sponsors were not allowed on the shorts, with the fighters having to confirm in the branded ‘Venom’ kit. This would not be the case at the PFL, as two or three sponsors will be approved for Ngannou to wear on his shorts. Ngannou said this was very important to him as before the Stipe Miocic fight at UFC 260 in March 2021; he had a sponsorship lined up with a cryptocurrency company for over 1 million dollars which he was not able to sign due to the UFC’s deal with Crypto.com. He didn’t feel it was fair as he didn’t get anything out of the deal with the UFC’s crypto sponsor.

Ngannou said that 2024 is the target for his first MMA bout in the PFL as ‘The Predator’ has set his sights on competing in boxing first.

”Tyson Fury is still out there, Deontay Wilder is still out there,” said Ngannou. ”I don’t know about Anthony Joshua. All those guys are still out there, and there is an opportunity as well to take a tune-up fight before the big fight [against one of the three above] whenever it comes”.

Having recently held a meeting with ONE Championship, it was clear that Ngannou wouldn’t be signing with them. Recalling a meeting with the chairman Chatri Sityodtong recently, Ngannou said that he felt he was talked at for three hours and nothing was agreed upon, either in writing or verbally. Having left the meeting feeling underwhelmed, he was disappointed to see that ONE FC had said they were ‘withdrawing from the process of negotiation with Francis Ngannou’ as the former UFC champion said they hadn’t even discussed business matters during the meeting.

Francis Ngannou’s next MMA fight will be in the PFL sometime in 2024. In the meantime, he is still searching for a boxing opponent.