Despite being one of the biggest names even after leaving, Francis Ngannou remains a UFC cautionary tale. Though Ngannou and the UFC went their separate ways in late 2022, the issues erupted. With the issue still unfolding, coach Eric Nicksick and Aljamain Sterling can’t help but see similarities in the fadeout to the legendary Randy Couture.
It was around his second career loss to Stipe Miocic in 2018. Reportedly, the fighter had to wait three years for his next title shot. When he did get it, Ngannou had marching orders to defend it, but contract problems made it messy. ‘Predator’ still gets the blame for allegedly ducking fights. Even the erasure of his feats continues to this day. Team Xtreme Couture’s Eric Nicksick has seen it all before.
I actually said that last night, because uh, … ‘DC’ was commenting about Randy Couture on the broadcast. And I was like ‘No way…they said Randy’s name?’ …I remember getting to talk to Dana for half a second, and, for a while there, they [broadcast] were not allowed to say ‘fighting out of Xtreme Couture’…We couldn’t have Xtreme Couture in the banner…I just remember that name was like absolutely blacklisted.
Eric Nicksick on ‘Verse Us with Eric Nicksick’ – Ep 10 @3point0LabsProduction Podcast/ via YT @vsuspod
At the UFC 305 PPV on-sale conference, challenger Israel Adesanya beefed with the champ for disrespecting the three kings of African MMA in UFC. However, Fight Week ‘Countdown’ vlog removed Francis Ngannou for just Izzy and Kamaru Usman.
It’s not the first instance. The co-hosts and Aljamain Sterling touched on how UFC claimed Tafon Nchukwi was their only Cameroonian fighter, not Ngannou or Thierry Sokoudjo. This incident did not sit well with the MMA community, and Dana White apologized for what happened.
Thierry Sokoudjou was the first Cameroonian in the UFC. I was second. Don’t let them lie and erase history 🇨🇲❤️🥇 pic.twitter.com/4ZSSRZtcyo
— Francis Ngannou (@francis_ngannou) August 13, 2023
Israel Adesanya speaks out about Francis Ngannou being “erased” from UFC history:
“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… pic.twitter.com/p7SRUjqyXH
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) August 14, 2024
Due to the reversal in the endorsement and piling pressure without substantial pay, Ngannou later joined PFL. He has been PFL’s most significant free agent acquisition ever. The ‘Predator’ also has an equity role in the PFL Global Advisory Board and chairs PFL Africa. But the stench of bad blood still exists; question is – how does it relate to Randy Couture?
What was the Randy Couture-UFC animosity?
UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture is as bloated as they come. Couture and Dana White mostly worked together during Couture’s record-setting six UFC title reigns in two divisions. But that all fell apart after the champion retired from fighting. Much like Tito Ortiz, Frank Shamrock, and Francis Ngannou today, he has been part of a bigger erasure to sweep history under the rug.
Randy ‘The Natural’ Couture and Francis Ngannou faced similar fates (Source: elintra.com.ar/Instagram)The legend remains ostensibly banned from the promotion even after all these years. Eric Nicksick of Team Xtreme Couture had to explain to White that the namesake gym does not represent Couture but carries on the work.
Nicksick and Aljamain Sterling were part of Ngannou’s wrestling team for his camp at UFC 260. Maintaining an association with the French-Cameroonian, Aljo and the longtime coach touched the root of the blasphemous erasure of history on both.
Subsequently, it’s a similar route to the legendary Couture when he beefed with White, Frank, and Lorenzo Fertitta. Part of the new regime’s sweeping changes included fighters signing away their ancillary rights in perpetuity. Couture wasn’t willing to give up without a fight. He became the cautionary figure to hold on to his ancillary rights. However, the UFC made sure nobody else ever would.
Packed under the UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts and Venum multi-year deal, fighters do receive merch perpetuity royalty payments. While Ngannou’s protracted contract wasn’t much amiss, he flagged the pole on such issues. However, cases like this and Couture illustrate the habit of changing history for promotional convenience.
