ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong has revealed the demands made by Francis Ngannou, which ultimately led to the promotion withdrawing their offer.
Ngannou parted ways with the UFC over a contractual dispute in January and has so far faced rejections from three combat sports promotions, namely Bellator, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, and now ONE Championship.
Chatri On Francis Ngannou
In a recent interview, Chatri revealed that things were moving in the right direction, but their talks hit a roadblock because of Ngannou’s non-financial demands.
“Ngannou was asking for a seat on the board of directors, he was asking for him to determine his opponent’s pay,” Chatri told Daily Star Sport. “We offered him 20 million dollars guaranteed, but the money wasn’t enough, he wanted all of these other non-financial terms that didn’t make a lot of sense. We obviously can’t give him a seat on the board of directors, that doesn’t make any sense, he would be a fish out of water [in that position].
“After careful reflection, we decided not to submit a final offer. Francis is a good guy and a good champion. I wish him continued success and happiness. At the end of the day, I didn’t feel Francis and I were fully aligned on non-financial matters. It is nothing personal. It is just a lack of alignment.”
For now, the PFL appears to be Ngannou’s likely destination, with the Cameroonian not getting any good news from the boxing world either, as two of his potential opponents, Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua are now booked to face one another, while Tyson Fury priorities a fight against Oleksandr Usyk.
Did Francis Ngannou make a big mistake by parting ways with the UFC?
