Francis Ngannou says UFC fighters lack the courage to pursue free agency

Francis Ngannou will be among several former UFC fighters competing at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood on May 16.

Nate Diaz will take on Mike Perry, with Junior dos Santos and Muhammad Mokaev also set to appear. The main event features Ronda Rousey against Gina Carano.

At a recent press conference in New York, Diaz referred to the card as being filled with “free” fighters, a description Ngannou strongly agreed with.

In an interview with ESPN, ‘The Predator’ expanded on his view that more fighters should consider free agency.

“There’s always the opportunity,” Ngannou said. “I think you just have to be around and be free. Make sure you’re in the position to catch that opportunity when it comes. If you get yourself stuck in a contract because you’re afraid of being alone out there, when the opportunity comes, you might be stuck in some contract.

“That’s what happened to a lot of fighters. They are just so scared of being free, being without promotion, without a promoter or something that they can do. They will sign up for everything just to be in the promotion and then the day that the opportunity, the real opportunity comes around they are not there.”

He added: “This fight this could have been an opportunity for so many people but they are all locked somewhere in contracts that they are not very happy about.”

Despite achieving several goals since leaving UFC such as breaking into boxing and signing with PFL he still faces criticism for his decision but remains focused on what lies ahead rather than looking back.