Curtis Blaydes doesn’t think Francis Ngannou made a mistake leaving the UFC
When former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou left the fight promotion in January, he was expecting to land a high-paying, high-profile boxing match.
It’s been three months and that high-profile bout hasn’t come to fruition leaving many thinking Ngannou made a big mistake leaving the UFC. Heavyweight contender Curtis Blaydes disagrees and believes that Ngannou’s move will eventually pay off.
“He only needs to have one fight where he earns like $5 million for it to be a win for him,” said Blaydes during the UFC Vegas 71 Media Day. “And that can happen between now and the next four years. I believe it will happen.”
Dana White’s Statement on Ngannou’s UFC Release
“We’ve been working on a new agreement for Francis for like two years now. We had gotten to a point where he was going to fight Jon Jones, and many believe, including me, he’s (Jones) is the best of all time, for the heavyweight championship,” White said in January.
“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 anybody and he turned the deal down,” continued White. “We’re going to release him from his contract. We’re going to give up our right to match and he can go wherever he wants and do whatever he wants.”
“We can’t continue to hold up the division and not come to an agreement with this guy. We did everything we could to make this fight happen, but he’s got it in his head that there are bigger opportunities outside of the UFC with lesser opponents.”