Francis Ngannou says PFL release came months before public announcement

According to Francis Ngannou, it wasn’t his decision to leave the PFL.

The heavyweight champion says he was let go in January, though the news wasn’t made public until March.

“I was hoping to have a fight since last year,” Ngannou said on The Ariel Helwani Show.

“I’ve been asking for a fight, and they kept telling me they are working on it. We parted ways in January. I think I wanted to give them a better way to come up with something because that was their decision to part ways, not mine.

“I was a little surprised when they made the announcement. They should’ve at least told me. I found it a little weird that after all this time, they didn’t come back to me and say, ‘Okay, now we are gonna announce it.’ They didn’t even tell me. People just sent it to me. It was just out there, and I wasn’t aware at all.”

Francis Ngannou responds to UFC offer

Ngannou’s contract with the UFC ended in January 2023, with no new deal on the table at that time.

Dana White later revealed that the UFC had made Ngannou an offer worth $8 million, which he turned down. According to White, this was a significant contract for someone in his position. However, he also noted that even if Ngannou had accepted it, there were no plans for him to fight Jon Jones again.