UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, made it clear he will not negotiate a new deal with the promotion without having the option to fight undefeated lineal heavyweight boxing champion and superstar, Tyson Fury, included in his contract.
Ngannou spoke with journalist Ariel Helwani on the latest edition of his show The MMA Hour and explained that while he won’t re-sign a new deal with the UFC unless they give him the option to face Fury at some point, he still believes there are big fights left for him inside of the Octagon as well.
“The Tyson Fury fight has to be part of the discussion,” Ngannou said (h/t MMA Fighting). “That’s not an option. It has to be part of the discussion because if that’s not part of the discussion now, it will never be. If I sign another contract now, and basically the same model of a contract, I’m screwed. It’s not happening ever. So we have to figure out a way to implement this into a contract. I think the UFC is a great promotion and I want to keep fighting. Tyson Fury is not my last fight. I want to keep fighting after Tyson Fury. There’s still a lot of fights out there. There’s Jon Jones, there’s a trilogy with Stipe [Miocic], there’s big fights I can do in the UFC, so I would really like that to happen. I would really like also to get to a common point. Yes, I can do Tyson Fury on my own, but what next? I would like to keep fighting. I would like for us to come to an agreement, but for that, they have to have a good understanding of the situation.”
Fightful has all of your MMA needs covered. Follow us on Twitter for updates, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for ‘Fightful Fight Night’ watch-alongs for all major MMA and Boxing events!
