Opinion: Will Francis Ngannou's departure be a tipping point for the UFC's treatment of its fighters?

This weekend saw some major news come out of the UFC, as it was announced that reigning heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou had failed to come to terms with the promotion on a new contract.

After essentially throwing Francis Ngannou under the bus, Dana White went on to announce that the heavyweight title was now vacant, and a fight between Jon Jones and Ciryl Gane, set for March, would decide the new champion.

Remarkably, Francis Ngannou has now become the first reigning UFC champion to depart the promotion since B.J. Penn did the same thing in 2004.

The big question now, of course, is whether ‘The Predator’ leaving for pastures new will turn out to be a tipping point for the UFC’s relationship with its fighters – or whether things will simply follow the status quo.

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How does Francis Ngannou’s situation differ to B.J. Penn’s?

BJ Penn was the last UFC champion to depart the promotion while holding a title

Firstly, it’s worth looking at the similarities and differences between Francis Ngannou’s situation and that of B.J. Penn’s nearly two decades ago. Both men ended up departing the UFC as reigning champions, but that’s where the similarities largely end.

Penn actually won the welterweight title from Matt Hughes in the final fight of his contract with the promotion. After turning down a new deal with the UFC, ‘The Prodigy’ then inked a deal with Japanese promotion K-1 and was stripped of his title. He would not return to the octagon until 2006.

Essentially, Penn’s situation forced the UFC to change their business practices for good. After Penn, the promotion would never again allow a fighter to challenge for a title with no fights remaining on their deal. The so-called ‘champion’s clause’, tying a titleholder to the promotion, was also added to contracts.

However, that changed in 2017. Partially due to the class action lawsuit filed by a number of former UFC fighters, the promotion began to add so-called ‘sunset clauses’ into contracts, essentially meaning that fighters would only be tied in for a maximum of five years.

Francis Ngannou is the first fighter to really take advantage of this clause. As his last deal began at UFC 220 back in January 2018, in turn it expired this month, despite the fact that his last fight came in January 2022.

In many ways, then, things have gone full circle, with Ngannou’s situation acting as the other side of the coin to Penn’s. It is worth noting, though, that the climate in the sport of MMA is very different for Francis Ngannou than it was when Penn departed.

Back in 2004, the UFC wasn’t the dominant force in the market like it is today, and Japanese promotions like K-1 and PRIDE could easily pay more than the US-based promotion. More to the point, they also had some of the best fighters on the planet on their rosters.

Today, though, not only is the UFC the highest-paying promotion in the world (with a couple of exceptions), but it is also home to the majority of the best fighters in the world.

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What lies outside the UFC for Francis Ngannou?

Francis Ngannou's options outside the UFC may well be limited

Where B.J. Penn had a number of viable options outside the UFC, and decided to go with K-1, the same may not be said for Francis Ngannou.

Sure, the likes of Bellator MMA and the Professional Fighters League may offer him more guaranteed money than the UFC, but it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to match the kind of money ‘The Predator’ could make with a cut of the UFC’s pay-per-view revenue.

More to the point, the number of interesting fights available to Francis Ngannou outside the UFC pales in comparison to those inside the promotion.

‘The Predator’ may prefer a move into the world of boxing, but while a fight with someone like Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder may make him a ton of money, it might also be detrimental to both his fighting career and his reputation.

Therefore, Francis Ngannou’s move should be seen as a brave one, but also highly risky, too.

The big question, then, is whether Ngannou’s decision to depart the UFC in this manner will trigger more fighters to follow in his footsteps.

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Will other big-name fighters follow Francis Ngannou in leaving the UFC?

Despite fighters like Conor McGregor making millions, the UFC's athletes are still paid less than their counterparts in other sports

Money is obviously the biggest issue for fighters when it comes to them remaining with the UFC or leaving the promotion.

On the one hand, Dana White and company could – and should – almost certainly pay their athletes more. It’s a well-known fact that the promotion makes an insane amount of money each year, but it’s also well-documented that the fighters make around 20% of the promotion’s revenue.

That pales in comparison to the kind of revenue percentages athletes make in other sports – often around 50%. It also pales in comparison to the kind of percentages that big-name boxers make.

However, it’s worth noting that most MMA promotions, if not all, follow the UFC’s business model. The question, then, becomes whether it’s worth a fighter trying to get a bigger percentage of a smaller pie elsewhere, or whether it’s better for them to take a smaller piece of the UFC’s huge pie.

Some fighters may well believe that the UFC still values loyalty and will reward those who tow the company line handsomely. That argument may have worked a decade ago.

At that time, the Fertitta brothers were the promotion’s majority shareholders, and often rewarded loyalty by treating so-called “company men” well. The likes of Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, for instance, were all given roles with the promotion after their retirement.

However, since the promotion was bought out by investment company Endeavor in 2016, that seems to have changed. Where the Fertitta brothers treated the UFC almost like a family company, the UFC is now firmly a business, and its fighters are seemingly all expendable.

With that considered, fighters should arguably think first about their own careers – particularly the amount of money they’re able to make – and second about the good of the UFC.

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Is Francis Ngannou’s route the only way to make big money in MMA?

Francis Ngannou will hope to make big money outside of the UFC

One argument, then, would suggest that the only way for Francis Ngannou to make the kind of money he believes he deserves is by leaving the UFC. However, that may not be true, particularly if he signs with a smaller competitor like Bellator MMA or the PFL.

How can MMA fighters make more, then? One route would be to follow in the footsteps of boxing. The sport differs to MMA in that there is no dominant promotion, per say, and sanctioning bodies like the WBA and IBF are a separate entity entirely.

Boxing promotions, therefore, have to bid money to be able to promote title fights, and this means that the percentage of revenue going to the fighters themselves increases hugely. That's particularly the case if the fighters involved can promote themselves, as Floyd Mayweather has done for years now.

The drawback to the boxing model, of course, is that it’s bad for the fans. MMA is a far easier sport to follow than boxing because, for the most part, fighters are concentrated in the big promotions.

This not only means that the UFC, for instance, can produce the kind of mega-card that boxing simply can’t, but it also means that negotiations don’t tend to get in the way of the best fights being made.

So what would be an alternative route? The obvious one would be the formation of a fighters’ union. After all, unionizing and collective bargaining is the way that athletes in other sports have been able able to force the share of the revenue they could make to increase.

In many ways, the union route would be better for everyone. Why haven’t the fighters formed one yet, then, despite a handful of attempts to do so?

Put simply, it’s because MMA is a very individualist sport. For every Francis Ngannou who is willing to butt heads with the UFC – and every Conor McGregor who knows his worth – there are multiple lower-end fighters who are simply willing to fight for whatever the promotion offers.

Lightweight prospect Terrance McKinney, for instance, took to Twitter in late 2022 to essentially defend the UFC. He was quickly backed up by veteran welterweight Jake Matthews.

In this instance, it didn’t sound like either man would be quick to look to unionize any time soon, something that would likely put them in the promotion’s bad books.

In a way, the famous quote from John Steinbeck – which stated that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires – fits the situation of the UFC’s fighters perfectly.

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Will Francis Ngannou’s decision to leave the UFC act as a tipping point?

It's unlikely that the UFC's treatment of its fighters will change going forward

Only time will tell whether Francis Ngannou has made the right decision in departing the UFC. There’s still a chance, of course, that ‘The Predator’ could return to the promotion in the future, perhaps after dipping his toes into the world of boxing.

Will his departure open the floodgates for more top stars leaving, though? Right now, it feels unlikely. Even if it does, the UFC has always been able to survive when top stars have left before.

2013, for instance, saw the end of the title reigns of two of the UFC’s biggest-ever stars in Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva. Rather than suffering, though, the promotion simply found Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor, and those two fighters outdrew their predecessors anyway.

Will anything change in terms of the UFC’s treatment of its fighters? Unfortunately, the answer to that is probably no as well. Dana White and company will continue to treat some fighters well, but disrespect and underpay others.

Until the fighters band together, the status quo will continue.

Francis Ngannou may well make himself more money than he might’ve done inside the UFC, but in terms of the bigger picture? It feels unlikely that he’ll be seen in years to come as a trailblazer.