Yardbarker
x
Matt Brown On Francis Ngannou: 'I Highly Doubt He Has Any Regrets'
Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Matt Brown On Francis Ngannou: 'I Highly Doubt He Has Any Regrets'

Originally posted on Dice City Sports  |  By Robert LaMar  |  Last updated Dec 31, 2025 7:20 PM ET

With just one fight remaining on his contract with the Professional Fighters League, Francis Ngannou recently reignited one of MMA’s most tantalizing what-ifs: a return to the UFC for a long-awaited showdown with Jon Jones potentially on the promotion’s planned White House card in June.

The tease alone was enough to set the MMA world buzzing. But any hope of reconciliation was quickly extinguished when Dana White publicly dismissed the idea, making it clear he has no interest in working with Ngannou again.

That response sparked a different conversation altogether: is Ngannou, the most feared knockout artist of his era, quietly regretting his decision to walk away from the UFC?

According to longtime UFC veteran Matt Brown, the answer is an emphatic no.

Ngannou’s departure from the UFC was as dramatic as it was historic. He vacated the heavyweight title, entered free agency, and bet on himself signing with the PFL while securing blockbuster boxing matches against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

While Ngannou lost both boxing bouts on the scorecards, the financial windfall reportedly dwarfed anything he could have earned under his previous UFC contract.

“Personally, I highly, highly doubt he’s having any regrets,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I think that’s the competitor in him speaking out. Of course he wants to fight Jon Jones. He wants to fight the best in the world.

“But he made more in one boxing match than he would have made in his entire UFC career than Jon Jones has made in his entire UFC career. I don’t think there’s a single regret.”

A Fighter’s Heart vs. a Prizefighter’s Reality

From a competitive standpoint, Ngannou’s frustration is understandable. Since leaving the UFC, he has fought just once in MMA a first-round demolition of Renan Ferreira in 2024. While dominant, the fight did little to answer the lingering question of how Ngannou stacks up against the best heavyweights still competing under the UFC banner.

Brown believes that’s the internal conflict Ngannou is wrestling with not money.

“He’s a competitor. He wants to fight the best,” Brown said. “I’m sure in the back of his head, he’s like, ‘I don’t want to be fighting these guys, I want to fight Jon Jones.’ If there’s any regret there, it’s as a competitor and he’s regretting it while sleeping on silk sheets on a yacht.”

Brown’s point was blunt but clear: Ngannou’s “regret,” if it exists at all, comes from legacy questions not lifestyle consequences.

Limited Options, Big Questions

As Ngannou approaches his 40th birthday in 2026, the clock is ticking. If he remains with the PFL, potential opponents include newly crowned heavyweight champion Vadim Nemkov. On the boxing side, another lucrative crossover bout perhaps against Deontay Wilder remains a possibility.

But none of those fights carry the same historical weight as a clash with Jones.

That, Brown argues, is the real loss: not money. But the absence of a defining rivalry that could have cemented Ngannou’s standing as the greatest heavyweight in MMA history.

“The UFC is the superpower,” Brown said. “He’s always going to have a ‘what could have been’ legacy in terms of competition.”

Prizefighting, Defined

Still, when viewed through the lens of prizefighting the very foundation of combat sports Brown believes Ngannou made the correct choice.

“He won the prize fight,” Brown said. “He got the prize, he fought for it, and he got it.”

Beyond his reported eight-figure boxing purses, Ngannou also negotiated a PFL deal that included multi-million-dollar paydays for both himself and his opponent a level of financial leverage rarely seen in MMA.

As Brown summed it up with a personal anecdote: “Money doesn’t buy happiness, but being broke doesn’t buy sh*t.”

This article first appeared on Dice City Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads:

Customize Your Newsletter

Yardbarker +

Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!