Francis Ngannou doesn’t want to get drawn into another back-and-forth with Dana White.
Francis Ngannou did not have much of a response to Dana White’s recent allegations about him.
Last month, the UFC CEO made negative allegations about Ngannou, saying Ngannou physically accosted himself and another member of the UFC team at the UFC offices after declining to give Ngannou a post-fight bonus following one of his wins. White claims that Ngannou pushed him in his office and later grabbed Hunter Campbell by the back of the shirt.
Given the inflammatory nature of White’s comments, one might expect Ngannou to offer a vociferous defense of himself; however, when speaking with Ariel Helwani on Wednesday, Ngannou seemed mostly unperturbed by the whole thing.
“Why am I not surprised?” Ngannou said.
“… At some point, it feels very annoying to just have to be responsible of what people say. Basically, if Dana says this, then I’m out here to defend myself of what Dana said, or whoever. I think, whatever he said, if he’s at peace with it, it’s OK. …
“No, I don’t find it important [to respond]. I don’t find it necessary. At some point it was, but over time, it’s not anymore. Maybe I’m getting old. I have less energy for drama or for stuff. I just want to be at peace, and for people to leave me alone. That’s all.”
Even when pressed to offer an outright rebuttal of what happened, Ngannou wasn’t willing to dive into another back-and-forth with White.
“In his office, that’s what he said, right?” Ngannou said. “Well, I’m sure he has a lot of cameras there. …
“If every time that somebody says something about you, that you have [respond], it’s going to be tough. As I said, over time, I just get tired of that stuff. I really saw that and scrolled [past]. I get past it. I wasn’t even thinking — I should’ve been thinking you were going to ask me that, obviously, but I’m long gone from that.”
Ngannou has not fought for the UFC in almost four years. His last bout was his heavyweight title defense against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270. Following that, “The Predator” spent a year recovering from a knee injury before leaving the promotion to sign with PFL. Even when he was still under contract with the UFC, White and Ngannou had an up-and-down relationship, which only soured once Ngannou left, which Ngannou says left him disappointed with where this all ended up.
“We shouldn’t have gone this way,” Ngannou said of his relationship with the UFC and White. “Why do we get all this way, first of all? What’s the purpose? How did we get from where we were to where we are right now? And I would just say, quite disappointing the way things went.”
Category: General Sports
