Francis Ngannou looks to show out at the MVP MMA 1 card on May 16th, and the lineal MMA heavyweight champion took time to briefly touch on his UFC departure. Ngannou clashes with Philipe Lins this Saturday, with a global broadcast set for Netflix in the industry leader’s inaugural foray into the MMA live event universe.
During a pre-fight interview with Daniel Cormier on DC’s personal YouTube channel, with a specific clip shared to the platform formerly known as Twitter by X user @FREAKMMA1, ‘The Predator’ covered several subjects ahead of returning from his nearly two-year absence from mixed martial arts competition. When asked by the former two-division UFC champion if Ngannou’s infamous UFC departure was just about money or if he felt disrespected by the promotion, Ngannou said,
“It wasn’t money. I think the mistake that the UFC did; we get to the point where I feel like they hit my ego. I felt like I wasn’t respected at that point. I think that was the moment that I’m like, ‘Ok, I think I’m getting out of this contract.’ The thing is like, and this is something that really worries me. Something that I have that really worries me, when something touches my ego, I don’t care about anything. At times I’m like ok, I don’t care if this is going to be the end of my career.”
Francis Ngannou told UFC, “it’s gonna be my way” but “they didn’t understand”
As he kept expounding upon his road toward leaving the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Francis Ngannou continued,
“If this means I’m going back to Africa to farm, at least I can buy some machine to farm. I’m going to do something. I can do something else and still make it. I think my success is not about the sport. I think it’s about my personality and how I can implement that in everything that I’m going to do. So it’s gonna be my way and I think that’s what they didn’t understand. They underestimate and they still kind of like come harder and harder, want to pressure me. I just wasn’t the right guy to deal with that way.”
