Francis Ngannou's manager claims UFC refused to give former champion fights

Francis Ngannou's UFC tenure recently ended as he became the first reigning champion to leave the promotion since B.J. Penn in 2004. Marquel Martin, who manages the former heavyweight champion, recently claimed that 'The Predator' may have been stalled out by the promotion prior to his departure.

Speaking to Ariel Helwani of The MMA Hour, Martin stated:

"We were trying to get so many fights, people have no idea. He should have been done with his contract two years ago, easily, and we could have re-signed, we could have done whatever. It was always, 'hey, this is happening and this is happening.' One could say he was just getting stalled out. After the [Jairzinho] Rozenstruik fight, we were waiting around forever and we didn't want to wait on Stipe [Miocic]."

He added:

"I think something was going on with [Daniel Cormier] and Stipe, we didn't want to wait, we were like, 'we'll take another fight. No problem. We'll take another fight.' So when people say Francis didn't want to fight, it's just not true. So I stopped arguing with the Twitter trolls. I've got so many damn receipts. I'm not even going to share them, and UFC knows that. They know that we were actively trying to fight all the time."

Check out Marquel Martin's comments on Francis Ngannou's inactivity below:

After fighting three times between November 2018 and June 2019, Ngannou faced Jairzinho Rozenstruik in May 2020. He did not enter the octagon for 10 months while waiting for his title opportunity against Stipe Miocic in March 2021.

'The Predator' had another 10-month layoff before defending his belt against Ciryl Gane in January 2022. The bout wound up being his last appearance in the UFC.

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Francis Ngannou's UFC tenure nearly continued, claims manager

Francis Ngannou recently left the UFC, shocking mixed martial arts fans. The former heavyweight champion nearly remained with the promotion, however, according to his manager. During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Marquel Martin stated:

"This dude got offered the biggest contract outside of Conor [McGregor] before the interim fight with Ciryl, and he said no because it wasn't about just money... I would say that he was very close. I would say that I wish things were different. I think there was a lot of miscommunication in the back and forth in getting all these people involved. At the end of the day, I still think everyone won.”

Check out Marquel Martin's full comments on Francis Ngannou below:

Ngannou announced last week that he would be joining the PFL. After signing what has been labeled a historic deal in mixed martial arts, 'The Predator' will reportedly make his boxing debut later this year, followed by his promotional debut in 2024.