UFC’s attempt to ‘WIPE’ Francis Ngannou’s history doesn’t sit well with Israel Adesanya 

Francis Ngannou‘s voluntary departure from UFC was one of the most shocking moves in the world of combat sports recently. Since then, the UFC and Dana White have tried their best to remove Ngannou’s history from the promotion. However, Ngannou’s close friend and UFC superstar Israel Adesanya is not a fan of this process.

Recently, during the pre-sales press conference of UFC 305, Israel Adesanya mentioned Francis Ngannou as part of the ‘Three Kings’. However, in the UFC official countdown video, the editors cut out Ngannou’s name from Izzy’s video. Adesanya didn’t let it slide and decided to stick up for his friend. According to the former middleweight champion, Ngannou’s name cannot be erased.

You can never erase Francis’ history from the UFC… It’s part of history, we need to fix this…I don’t like the fact we’re trying to just cut out a really important part of history. It’s silly.
Israel Adesanya via ESPN MMA’s YouTube channel

The ‘Three Kings’ Adesanya mentioned was the band of champions, including him, Kamaru Usman, and Francis Ngannou. It was back when all three of these fighters were champions of their respective divisions and represented Africa. Going into UFC 305, Izzy plans to beat the champion, Dricus Du Plessis, for discrediting the Three African Kings.

On the other hand, the whole process of Francis Ngannou leaving the UFC was very public and got a lot of attention. After leaving, the ‘Predator’ was signed by UFC’s competitor, PFL. This might be the reason why the UFC doesn’t want to mention him in their official videos. 

Why did Francis Ngannou leave the UFC?

Francis Ngannou departed the UFC in 2023 over disagreements over contract flexibility, financial terms, and personal principles. He wanted to be able to compete in boxing fights and receive better fighter treatment, including money and healthcare. However, after days of negotiations, the UFC failed to come up with a suitable deal for the fighter.

The feud between Francis Ngannou and Dana White (via Imago)

Ngannou decided to pursue free agency because he felt the UFC’s offers were insufficient. He later signed a multi-million dollar PFL contract and was given the position of chairman of PFL Africa. When asked about the contract, Dana White failed to make sense of it altogether. 

Based on what I know about the deal, which is not much, it makes no sense to me. You’re going to pay a guy not to fight for a year and it’s already been like 18 months
Dana White via UFC post-fight presser