Chael Sonnen is questioning the wisdom of Francis Ngannou and his team.
In the main event of UFC 270 on Saturday, Ngannou won a unanimous decision against Ciryl Gane to record the first successful defense of his heavyweight championship, but the drama in the octagon was arguably overshadowed by the contract negotiation talk surrounding the fight.
Ngannou spoke out publicly to say he wants a renewed contract with UFC. This will allow him to receive more compensation and also give him the opportunity to continue his boxing career outside the UFC. Ngannou spoke out about his uncertain future at the UFC’s Saturday press conference.
Sonnen discussed the matter in a live stream after the event. While he was impressed by Ngannou’s handling of himself, he still doubts that Ngannou is the most intelligent heavyweight fighter.
” I found [the post-fight comments] powerful because he isn’t bluffing anymore,” Sonnen stated. I believe Francis has been given poor advice. Francis may be thinking the world is telling him that he should go fight Tyson Fury. I have no idea who told him that. Francis has the dream, and it’d be a great honor to help him. If you’ve got some promoter out there that’s willing to lose a ton of money and wants to throw it at that match and how they’re going to package it and how they’re going to sell I really haven’t the foggiest idea but if they want to do it that’s their business, it’s not ours.
” It would be a risky move and even silly to wait for the moment you realize you already have a bird in your hand. Francis is expected to earn between six and nine million dollars each year by being active [in the UFC]. His opportunity cost to delay December in order to fight for something he doesn’t have is the greater part of his career earnings. That’s his decision.”
Ngannou and heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury have repeatedly challenged each other over social media and they exchanged more comments via Twitter following Ngannou’s UFC 270 win. Sonnen is curious if Fury and Eddie Hearn really want to make a commitment financially for that matchup.
Specifically, Sonnen is looking ahead to December, when Ngannou could potentially become a free agent without fighting again in the UFC, and whether his name will still have the same value without the promotion attached to his name.
“If December rolls around next year and Francis has been unseen and Francis is no longer the undisputed champion and he no longer has the power of the organization behind him, the [likeliness] of a payday in boxing with Fury exponentially declines,” Sonnen said. “That’s always a hard one to see.”
Sunny has no problem with Ngannou’s handling of negotiations.
“Whether you like that Francis is in this position of digging in and wanting to change his contract or not, you have to admit Francis has done nothing wrong,” Sonnen said. There are many words you can use to describe what happened, and some might be synonyms, but the only thing that will truly be mutually exclusive is, “Did he make a mistake?” One could be annoyed or disappointed. But you cannot argue with someone who does this above and beyond the norm. The only way we can know Francis’ position is because he told everyone.
“Whoever he’s dealing with, he for sure has told, ‘This is where I stand and whatever happens to me after this is going to be your decision but here’s where I stand.’ OK, he did nothing wrong, he didn’t, so how do you want to look at this and what are you going to predict happens?”
Sonnen was critical of Ngannou’s in-cage performance against Gane, going as far to say that he felt the judges’ should have scored the fight for Gane. He feels the same about the co-main event, which saw Deiveson Figueiredo reclaim the flyweight title with a unanimous decision win over Brandon Moreno, and was critical of all four headliners for what he saw as doing a poor job of promoting UFC 270.
Should Ngannou stay around? Sonnen thinks he should take some time to heal a knee injury, and possibly avoid fighting Jon Jones.
“I believe the story [about Ngannou’s injury] has been planted to a purpose,” Sonnen stated. The reason is to take a breather. To take your oars out of the water. When you’re a prizefighter — much like you guys, you don’t want a break. Although you love the idea of vacation, the reality is that you must get paid. It’s your desire to get to work. Let’s get it over now, let’s get that much closer to retirement and not be coming back here — in all fairness, a prizefighter works the same way unless he’s calculated.
“The only hope that we have for fans based on what we saw tonight, based on the letdown that these two [title fights] pulled is if Francis takes his oars out as a way of starving Jon out, which will happen at some point, and get Stipe [Miocic] in there with [Jones]. Stipe is the only one that can beat Jon Jones. I don’t know that Stipe would, that’s between those boys, he’s the only one that could. Because he’s not too big, he’s not too slow, if he goes down he’s not gonna lay there like a turtle because he’s pushing the better part of 300 than he is 200. He’s dog-tough, he knows how to wrestle, he checks a lot of boxes… but one thing, and Daniel [Cormier] might be guilty of this too, but between now and the media cycle on Monday, Jon’s gonna find those balls of his that he lost.”
