‘He’s been praying for my downfall’… Francis Ngannou launches scathing attack on Dana White over controversial comments

UFC CEO Dana White certainly caused a scene earlier this week when he claimed that the promotion was set to cut Francis Ngannou before ‘The Predator’ left the organization on his own terms.

Never one to back down, Francis Ngannou has now fired back at the UFC CEO; not only claiming that he’s the only one stopping the super fight with Jon Jones from being made, but that he’s secretly been praying for his downfall as he still owes him back-pay.

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLCFrancis Ngannou launches vicious verbal assault on UFC CEO Dana WhiteDuring the post-event press conference for Power Slap 9, Dana White would claim that he was going to cut Francis Ngannou from the UFC before one of his coworkers ‘begged’ him to keep the dominant heavyweight signed to the roster.

“Francis is all about the money… I was going to cut Francis when he lost two in a row. I was going to cut him. Somebody here begged me not to do it. So, it wouldn’t have mattered to me, one way or the other. There’s a much deeper story to this whole thing.”

Unsurprisingly, those comments haven’t sat well with the lineal MMA heavyweight champion of the world, who accused White of lying in order to save face as he spoke with Ryan McKinnell and Andreas Hale of MMA Today.

“I think Dana is trying to make things up so he can buy a good face in the position that he has lost,” stated Ngannou, reaffirming that: “Dana has lost in this situation and the only thing is that he cannot stand it [my success].

“Bro, I won everything, the guy can’t live without it. He can’t handle me. Regardless of everything that happened, it’s not about him – I went out there to have a great fight for my son’s memory, but the guy can’t stand [me].

“I don’t know what his problem is, and he can make everything up as he wants, that’s his problem – he needs to make peace with himself… You could’ve just said ‘We couldn’t find any agreement, we couldn’t come to a deal but good luck to him,’ that’s it but fast forward and we continue our lives – what’s the problem here?

PFL: Francis Ngannou addresses controversial refereeing in heavyweight title victory over Renan FerreiraAccording to the PFL heavyweight champion, White “can’t handle this loss” to the UFC standings and has “been praying for my downfall, but I just keep doing my thing… Rising.”

Ngannou would also fire back at the comments around money, even claiming that the promotion still owes him a portion of his purse from when he faced Stipe Miocic and Ciryl Gane in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

“What money is he talking about? The money that he owes me. They said that they were going to back-pay the money that we owe you from Stipe and Ciryl… They never back-paid me, and now I have made more money than I would have ever made in the UFC. Twice in my career UFC career.”

White has also previously stated that part of Ngannou’s UFC exit was because he didn’t want anything to do with Jon Jones – ‘The Predator’ denied this accusation, arguing that there’s still only one man standing between a potential crossover super fight with ‘Bones’.

“I still want Jon Jones, remember that the only guy right now making the Jon Jones fight not happen is Dana White – the only guy standing between [us and] that fight is Dana White.

“I want the Jon Jones fight, give it to me now. I’m down, Jon Jones is down, we have always been down, but this is a new narrative that they have to build – three years after [I left the UFC], I’m still down for the Jon Jones fight. I was down before, and I am down now.”

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