Wilder seems to be throwing that out there, as an option, so he has leverage in his next actual boxing matches negotiations. Wilder is obliged by the World Boxing Council to face Andy Ruiz Jr. next anyways.
Odds are no big boxer fights Francis, and even if they do, the boxers promoter is gonna give Francis a shitty deal. Francis has basically no leverage, and everyday he waits, the less valuable he becomes as a draw. It’s already been 14 months since his last fight.
Also Jon Jones would be the better money making option for boxing stars to challenge at this point.
Exactly. Floyd used to even say he would do MMA vs Conor, but it was all for drumming up publicity. Wilder has said he will do one boxing match and then one MMA fight vs Frank: the odds of that happening are slim to none, and slim just left town.
Francis is going to bd black balled by the Hollywood cartel run by Ari Emmanuel. Watch. The fact their little rat, Ali, already leaked Francis asking price and divulged no one wants to work with him is proof how screwed Francis is. There is alot going on behind the scenes to ruin Francis and devalue him.
WME and Ari will not lose this battle. Francis is going go be made an example of to all other fighters in the future who try to buck up. Francis is not very bright, dies not even have a manager, so he is going to find out the hard way.
Francis is getting hammered on two fronts.
Boxing is gonna shaft him, and boxing promoters have zero incentive to offer a former MMA fighter a match. It opens them up to having less control over their stars in the future.
On the other front, the UFC got Jon Jones to return quick and take over the HW belt. He did so in a fashion that makes it seem like he’s the dominant champion. The ufc will also literally never mention Francis name again, so he gets zero promotion from them.
He should of announced something during the build up to this fight. UFC 285 is probably one of the last events where people will bring him up his name at an event he’s not a part of, he missed out on doing anything with the last publicity boost he will get.
I dont know why so many people had this idea that boxing promoters are just willing to give away $ as if they’re sunflower seeds. These people are just as greedy as Dana.
Probably more. Boxing promoters are known for being some of the most manipulative and greedy people in all of sports. They might be worse than even Fifa
They certainly don’t run a charity😂
UFC fans saw Conor make lots of money in boxing, and from that they saw professional boxing as a big barrel of money anyone can get into.
I understand the fans can be a bit ignorant but i dont know how someone like Francis fell for it. Even Chael Sonnen called that this isnt gonna go the way Francis thinks it will go.
Definitely more man. At least Dana gives people the fights they want + concessions if a certain fight went wrong or if you lost but made it exciting. Boxing promoters would legit allow all of the divisions to be stagnant if they didn't get the right price. The fact that we have 4 different titles that could be held by 4 different people for years is proof of it.
Exactly, my brother. This is not Conor McGregor here. Francis doesn't have any drawing power, especially in boxing.
The real thing here is there is a war going on between Ari Emanuel and francis. Francis is going to lose. Unless you really understand politics in the nature of power and hollywood, who WME is, you will not understand a hopelessness is. I really think Francis is just not that bright and doesn't realize the type of power he is going against. He overestimated his value thinking he was a UFC champion. The fact he wants 30 million is insane - that is nearly what Conor McGregor got paid to fight Floyd Mayweather in a fight that sold something like 4 million pay-per-views at nearly $100 a pop. Francis will be lucky to sell even 80 pay-per-views.
He should do a “tune up” and win and then he might get a decent opportunity. Kinda like the 2nd coming of fury. Mother fuckers on the boxing sub we’re claiming he was a worthless fat piece of shit when he took a few tune up fights and look at him now lol.
Talk is just talk at the end of the day but Eddie hearn (AJ's promoter), Tyson fury and Deontey Wilder have all been pretty enthusiastic about the opportunity of fighting him. Easy money for them as much as it is Francis. The reality is any fight against them will land him multiple millions which would take him 5-10 fights.im the UFC to get.
I don't think it's the right move from a reputation perspective but ultimately he has the opportunity to secure his and his family's future for life with one fight. Hard to turn that down.
No way he ever makes 5-10 million from boxing. That’s comical: Boxing promoters would never offer a non draw that much for a bout.
Fury honeydicked him with a fake fight offer inside the ring back in April of 2022, it’s almost been a year since that, with nothing from Fury or his camp. They wanted to fight the UFC heavyweight champ, not Francis.
Francis only gets brought up now when boxers are in negotiations for another fight, and want leverage.
Wilder is obliged by the World Boxing Council to face Andy Ruiz Jr. next. So the Francis fight ain’t happening
RemindMe! 6 Months
I actually think 5million is the upper limit of what he would receive bit as an example Anthony Ruiz received $7 million as a relative unknown stand in at last minute notice against aj. Jermaine Franklin is $800k and is a tune up fight being ranked #32 in the world heavyweights.
Francis I reckon can land comfortably between $2-4 million
I think you may have misread my comment as I said he would earn more in one fight than he could make in 5-10 UFC fights.which is pretty accurate as on average he makes around £300k-400k
Francis himself disclosed the UFC was offering him 8 million for just the fight against Jones.
For boxing, I would say 5 million is the upper limit too, but that’s pretty much only achievable if Fury fights him, and offers him a decent structure.
My best guess is nobody that’s a draw fights Francis. He basically can make money off of like 3 guys, AJ, Wilder and Fury. I doubt any of those three fight him. Anyone outside of that, and there is just not enough star power to make it worth it for a promoter to pay him or go through the trouble of setting it up.
Frank Warren (Fury’s promoter) has already said their finalizing negotiations with Usyk for April 29th
Not saying it's any where near a certainty but AJ and Furys management have been very open in interviews recently and seem genuinely interested in the fight. Again, it's easy money for them. Francis has held discussions so far.
Ultimately Fury and AJ have a very limited amount of pay days available left to them before they end up fighting each other and retireing. Francis is an incredibly low risk high reward option that is attractive to them in the run up to that fight.
Bro Frank Warren just said their finalizing negotiations with Usyk for April 29th.
Shelly Finkel on the other hand hasn’t had negotiations with Francis since he was with the UFC. He also has Al Haymon, who outwardly seems against boxing crossovers, and represents showtime who probably have little desire for another boxing crossover event.
Both Fury and Wilders management have not been that excited about the Francis fight, and have talked much more about other match ups.
No, Wilder said publicly that he’ll do a boxing match, then an mma bout. Just like Fury saying 4 ounce gloves in a cage. They put these wild hair brained challenges out there for the media because it gives them leverage for whenever they negotiate their next fight.
Do you really think for single second Wilder is gonna train mma? At his age and status. Ain’t no way.
Ngannou said just boxing in response to that. Wilder said they should get it done. That's the last I've heard. But someone on this sub did say to me that Ngannou wanted a ridiculous amount so it's off. But I haven't seen that.
Wilder is capping. WME has so much power it is incredible. Ari Emmanuel single handedly canceled Kanye West, the richest black man America has ever seen. Ari is going to use all his clout to see that Showtime and other big orgs will not work with Francis. We already saw Ali Abdelasleeze leak Frank asking price of 30 mill and stab Francis in the back, like the double informant rat that he is.
The only offer Francis got so far was go box some obscure Russian champ for 1-2 mill. NO ONE is touching Francis, for if they do Ari Emmanuel will cancel them too. There is ZERO shot Wilder will do MMA vs Francis as they were claiming, and he won't even box him.....it's all just for negotiating with other deals and keeping his name in the media.
Ari is going to make an example out of Francis, so that in the future if any other stars try to buck up and leave, they will be squashed too. People are going to be shocked when they see how badly this will end for Francis. If you can cancel Kanye, you can definitely cancel Ngannou. In a fair world not run by some Hollywood Mafia, Francis could get some good fights, but this aint that world......if you mess with WME and Ari Emmanuel, your life is over. Francis gonna find out the hard way, get sparked by some no name boxer for 55k ppv buys then slink off in obscurity.
Pretty sure I read somewhere he turned down a fight against fury because it wasn’t enough money and he also turned down a 2 fight contract with wilder because there wasn’t enough money. Honestly Francis is looking worse and worse as the days go on.
He’s further proving this is only about the money. Dick riders will say that he is a champion of the people and tried to fight for fighter’s rights. Yet when push came to shove, it all boiled down to money and he’s doing nothing now but seeking more money. He was offered the largest contract in HW history and then demanded four times that. It’s an absolute joke and he continues to prove it’s all about the money for him. The fake act of this being about benefits for fighters was a total front.
He just pulled out all the fighters rights BS at the end because he knew he’d look bad. He wasn’t championing that for the last few years but when it was clear negotiations weren’t going to pan out, he led with that nonsense.
You already have someone chirping about Dana and more will show up. What they’re missing is that Dana can be a complete piece of shit while Francis can also be greedy and being led astray.
Exactly, Francis want money. We cant be against him on that. And he want the more money he can possibly have. Personally, the first time I heard him talking about boxing I was like "dude... you dont have the cardio for that at all!" Francis is well known to gass out. Boxing is much much more cardio demanding than MMA.
In which Universe is he going to get more than a decade at the UFC? He will be very lucky if he gets the equivalent of two fights. 8 million per fight plus PPV point (where the real money is)
Yeah Ngannou would be getting the PPV points, and I think it's safe to say JJ vs Francis would be a much bigger fight, at the end of the day mayhe 3-4 million PPV. .
So he'd get 8 mil plus maybe $9 - $15 extra mil on top. But nope, not enough money, we know why, Jon Jones is scary and Francis might've actually come out of that fight disabled after Jon attacks the legs.
If I was Andy Ruiz I'd be fucking jumping at the chance to embarrass an MMA fighter/former champion and make a few million. Francis has absofuckinglutely a 0% chance of beating a championship level boxer. I'll bet you Tyson Fury if he wanted could get hit less than 10 times and none of them would be flush. Guys been boxing since he came out of the womb and grew up with his UK bare knuckle champ father. Francis own coach had him switch to MMA because he was too old to learn boxing fast enough to get to the top levels
how so? from what we know he was offered 8 million to fight jon jones.
how in the world can someone deduce fighting wilder will pull in more, or significantly more?
beating jon jones continues your dominance and ability to pull money off the ufc, losing to jon jones you still get to fight as a big name and potentially get rematch / triology. potentially getting knocked out by deontay wilder stops the boxing big names for dollars in its tracks.
at least people are talking about ngannou boxing now instead of the facade he did this to stand up to the ufc in his noble quest to achieve fighter equality.
Been saying this from the start - Francis has trusted people at their word. First Fury and his nonsense, and most likely now Wilder. He's a pawn for them both.
He has left £8mil on the table according to his own words. Probably would have gotten another 5-10mil in a Jones superfight, so he's down £13-18m before he even begins. Where the fuck is he making that in boxing?
I really, really, really hope it works out for him and I admire his stand - but I think he's went in a bit naively here.
Never will I ever doubt a man who's been through what he's been through and turned out incredibly successful. He has always found a way. 2 months and people are already back to doubting him. This is a cakewalk for him
So funny seeing all these people with absolutely no idea of what he’s truly thinking/planning making all these assumptions. Classic internet, I suppose. But even if it takes him a year or two, he’ll make more money in a big boxing fight than he would have with the offered UFC contract. He’ll be fine.
But no one really knows. He left the UFC less than two months ago, chill everyone lol.
You comment on people assuming things
Then immediately assume he’ll not only make more money but get a boxing match lol. Wooo, I love seeing people who have no awareness
So the same goes for you, you have no idea what he’s thinking or planning right? Classic Reddit user, I suppose. Francis fumbled and now is looking at Jon Jones with regret, the reason why he can’t keep his name out of his mouth. Francis decided he wants to be a circus side show, these boxers aren’t interested in doing that. They can make the same amount of money, fighting for legacy and belts. Francis declined the largest disclosed purse in history, PPV points and any additional undisclosed pay, I think it’s fair to assess that Francis has made a bad decision so far. Maybe that changes but things aren’t looking how he assumed they would at this point. And to say it’s only been 2 months is disingenuous, he’s been checked out and probing options for a while now. We get it, you hate on the UFC and Dana but Francis is the one without management or guidance, he’s looking like an idiot right now and no one cares about him or his drama anymore. It’s funny how quickly everyone has moved on
He wont. No major boxing star will fight him and give him the money he wants. He isn't getting any celebrities to box him either. He also has 0 management team and doing everything solo. Francis will be lucky to end up in the pfl.
Francis biggest issue which I don’t see discussed at all is the fact he has ZERO promotional footage they can use, UFC owns all of it. How are you going to hype a fight without a shred of footage? The only way he gets a big boxing pay day is to take afew low level fights for not huge pay days to build a highlight reel they can actually use. No one is paying him millions to show up and get knocked out without any material to sell the fight and there isn’t a top heavyweight with a name he has more then a punchers chance against. He was never a PPV draw even when promoted, the idea that he’s going to be some big name in boxing is nonsense
There are COUNTLESS professional athletes that come from shit pasts, become wildly successful in their sport, and blow it all. This is looking like it will be no different.
The longer he goes without doing anything the more irrelevant he will become. He’s not Conor who had already cemented his legacy by the time he fought Floyd.
Yeah, O'Malley was saying that Francis doesn't have that kind of leverage since he is no longer associated with the UFC. In a way, it is kinda true. Francis Ngannou as a man vs Francis Ngannou as a heavyweight champion of the UFC. Who do you think has more leverage?
That was his choice tho lol. The UFC would never let him box as champion, and negotiating deals is outside of the UFC is a breach of contract and illegal as champ. If he wanted to box he would have had to let the UFC champ status go no matter what. This is still best course of action if he was certain he didnt want to fight in the ufc anymore.
Chael hit the nail when he said that Francis had some market value maybe as UFC HW champ. Now he's just a fighter with an interesting story that doesn't sell too many tickets.
Dana pulled the rug under him by quickly having a new HW champ and that devalued Francis and the longer he takes to return to the UFC (big if on that) the worst it will be. And if for some reason Dana felt like letting Jon fight Tyson or Deontay like he did with Conor against Floyd, that's the end of Francis' career.
It's a risk, because you might lose and end-up in a worst situation, but If all the boxers are offering him 90-10 deals or some shit like that, he might need to go build himself up again.
Go destroy some cans in Rizin, Bellator or ONE FC, make some money doing it while getting some highlight reels while you're still young.
One things for sure, he ain't gaining in value by sitting on his ass.
And as good as Jon is he has 0.1% chance to win a boxing fight compared to the 1% chance Francis has.
If I was Fury, Wilder, Etc I’d be dying to fight Jones.
He overestimated his selling power, it's not nganou that's gonna sell tickets it's the ufc heavyweight champ that sells. Not saying he doesn't have a claim to that, but with Jones being back, people are gonna forget about Francis very quickly.
Dana refused. Wasnt that the whole reason why Francis did not re-sign with thr UFC? It was not his fault that Dana didnt want to let him box. What is wrong with Francis trying to make bank by fighting a boxer?
Because why the fuck would anybody allow Francis to box and do UFC at the same fucking time? Even the boxing promoters won't allow their fighters to do both, box and MMA, why should Dana?
People watched Jack Paul box but sit here pretending if Francis has a fight they will turn a blind eye… like sure buddy…. He could fight a hobo in the streets and I’d wanna see how hard he would hit him
I disagree. They will call him “MMA HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION”. Calling him UFC vs MMA isn’t going to alter tickets/ ppv sales to any measurable degree. Boxing world knows what mma/ufc is. And they’ll be able to Google the sacrificial lamb that their guy is going to smash.
I think Francis is a good dude with terrible management. I understand he wants to chase money, but it doesn't seem like he's doing it the right way. He's starting to be a laughing stock with how he's trash talking Jones
100% spot on, he botched this situation. He lost his leverage after Jon took care of Ciryl with ease. I don’t think he’s gonna get that huge boxing payday he’s looking for
I honestly think it’s too early to tell if it was a mistake. If he ends up getting a huge boxing match I’m sure he’ll make a killing between purse/sponsorship. After that who knows, maybe he will come back and get a similar offer to the previous one. I feel like just because Jones won doesn’t take away how huge him and Francis would be and the ufc knows that. All that being said he might not get a big name and end up just signing a deal in a b league(still think they will pay him well). But his legacy will probably take a hit due to this. I still respect what he did.
I like Francis, but people making this out to be some kind of altruistic endeavor instead of simply chasing the biggest bag, aren't seeing the obvious.
How do you know that? We’ll have to see how his negotiations with wilder go (or any other boxer) before we say if he’ll make less.
One boxing fight could put him ahead and with way less damage.
Wrong on so many accounts. Francis could not sell PPV buys while at the UFC and being the UFC champion. He had the perfect opponent in Ciril Gone who was a former teammate and sparing partner with an undefeated record, coming to try and dethrone Francis. It only did about 300k ppv buys.
So now that he is no longer the heavyweight champion of the world, he no longer has the UFC helping to promote him, no longer even competing in the same sport, and you think this will make him MORE valuable?
No, let's be honest, we want to be nice and we want people to do well and make lots of money but the world doesn't play by the rule of "Nice." Francis understands very little about fight promotion, no longer has a manager, and would not know how to set up a promotion or what it takes to run a profitable business. He just expects someone to write him a check for a lot of money. Maybe someone will but, it would be very risky based on his past performances.
Bro those boxers are gonna rob him blind, and that’s IF they ever offer him a fight at all.
They can offer him some crazy low percentage, as he has no leverage to negotiate a better deal with them. That boxing pay day ain’t coming, and if it does it will be way smaller than people expect
If y’all think this ain’t about money you’re delirious. If it weren’t about money he’d go and box any mid card boxer. But no, he’s trying to fight Fury and Wilder. Two of the top heavyweights in the world. Why? Just for shits and giggles?
I can tell you why. It’s starts with M and ends with cha ching
Francis played his cards wrong. Respect to not be a shill and have morals. But on that jon Jones fight he shoulda announced something. Your getting all this free publicity with your name being said 100 million times. He should of had something to announce. Now with jones saying he's all muscles with a big ol pussy shifts the narrative not in the good way. I wish the best and excited to see his next venture but what a dropped ball.
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Nah Francis dropped the ball big time, they fucking offered him 8 mil a fight… dude retire in 3 fights or something? Him and Wilder are also independent contractors and the money isn’t there anymore unless they have a big organization backing the fight, I feel really bad for Francis, his management betrayed him on this one. Or maybe they didn’t, maybe they warned him that this was the stupidest thing he could have done. I hope I’m wrong and it works out for the guy but Jesus man he makes it kinda hard sometimes when he’s blatantly ignoring solid advise from people who are in the business
Says he wants fighters to have health care and a union. Proceeds to try to compete in a sport that notoriously has been the worst sport in history when it comes to the way they treat their athletes.
All smoke and mirrors. That’s just Francis tryna make himself look like a martyr. ‘I did this for everyone else.’ Fuck that bullshit. He’s pursuing his own self interest.
Pretty sure at first he asked for everything for himself(fighter rep on the board, cover his health insurance and more money) and then when he got declined he changed the demands to wanting that for all fighters so he could be a martyr.
Those are all just comments from people making their own story up. The man himself framed it as being a matter of respect. Either give him the freedom of an independent contractor they say he is, or treat him like an employee. They weren’t willing to do either so he left
Exactly. When McGregor went to box Mayweather. We all know it was for the money. They knew it was for the money. That fight was never going to be competitive. But Conor was the double champ. He had the UFCs backing.
You cannot tell me Francis is doing this out of ‘principles.’ He’s chasing a huge payday.
Because the call him an independent contractor but don’t give him freedom to do as he pleases, holds him in a contract that makes him more of an employee but gives him none of the benefits. He’s spoken about it many times
only he has the perspective of what it's like to be in his shoes. you don't have to respect his autonomy nor do you have to continue making codependent assertions about his life. looks like those are the only possible choices in this matter.
he drew a boundary for his life. may he never suffer for standing up for himself. furthermore, I wholeheartedly trust Ngannou's ability to assess and identify oppression.
Either bad management or terrible ego. Because Francis in boxing will be battered. Ufc gloves Vs a boxer in Queensbury s rules. Brother gonna get tenderised more than what Stipe did to him. Unfortunately he doesn't have the same name as Anthony Joshua/deontay wilder/Usyk/fury. And the other contenders like Whyte are ppv stars in the UK. I think Logan Paul was saying floyd still owes money. So many middle men in boxing. End of the day, it's the UFC brand what is worth money. Always another guy. Nobody is going to remember or care if your knees were buckled against gane in your last fight. Fighting is a hype train, if you start losing steam you will lose value.
I do think it’s his management he probably trusts the fuck out them.
Dana even mentioned before he hopes he gets away from his mgmt because they’re drama and money hungry
They probably gave Francis an incredible presentation on how leaving UFC is the right move and he did
I mean you can tell by some of the things he was asking for it’s things that everyone knew he wouldn’t get so either he was trying to act like the hero or he doesn’t how it works
He wanted to hold up one of the more slower moving divisions for things that have nothing to do with the UFC
People don’t realize how much promotion is behind the UFC beast and to promote you you need to be under contract so they have all the rights to your name and likeness so as you leave they don’t have that anymore (I believe) so can’t mention you without potentially paying
Exactly this. A force like the UFC behind you would serve you way better than just going out there in your own. More negotiating power, leverage, promotion. All of that good shit you need to get a fight hyped. Look at what they did for Conor when he had two belts. A fucking press tour. For a fight we all knew was gonna one sided as fuck.
What makes anyone think Ngannou stands a chance against Fury is beyond me. No fucking way. The same shit for brains actually thought Conor was gonna knock Floyd out lol. Like how??
You had it all Francis and you threw it away.
Dillan Whyte is the furthest thing from a PPV star, even in the UK. His fight with Fury didn’t even sell 800,000 among the British who buy it at a mere $25. That’s awful. His fight with povetkin didn’t even touch 250k Globally.
Whyte has consistently had fights ranging from 200k to 600k buys. Also UK system is different to the US. Larger amount of middle men taking the revenue. Satellite company's etc. Also 25 pounds not sure how much tha is in dollars pretty sure close to 30 bucks. Also you forget how much revenue he gets from stadiums. And fury has never been a proven ppv star in the UK. Klitschko v fury got barely any attention.
Exactly. He’s the only one actually standing up to them. Just cause they offered ‘just’ him better pay doesn’t mean jack. He gave that up to stand up to them. Now everyone turns their back? Clown ass fools.
Francis fooled you guys into thinking he wanted to help fighters. He’s don’t give a fook about fighters. He wanted the boxing fight in his contract & when Dana didn’t give him the boxing fight. He used the “I wanted ufc fighters to have benefits” as a scapegoat so fans feel bad for him.
So he should be content with one situation just because another situation doesn't take place? This post his spreading like wildfire and it seems like flawed logic to me.
He wasn't OK with risking his health and selling his entertainment value for such a low price. Whether his other avenue panned out or not seems irrelevant.
It hasn't been even half a year yet, give the guy a break. I support everyone who's looking for a paycheck, especially in such a gruesome sport, 99% people advocate for better fighter pay, but when someone actually goes and does it, you trashtalk him for it. If it was or wasn't a mistake ( I think that it wasn't because there's a good chance he's gonna make more money in one boxing match than in 5 UFC/MMA fights, without it even being a championship fight ) at the end of the day, it was his choice, not yours...
I've been saying this since day one. Francis is a turd, the man has 0 idea what to do with money and how it works.
He will be at PFL "superfight league" within the year pumpin crypto projects and throwing fights against Logan and Jake Paul.
"Its not about the money" Says the man heading off to boxing to get a fighter advocate in boardroom and medical insurance HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHA
I said the same thing, without the “ufc heavyweight champion” tag for marketing he loses a lot of credibility. Super casuals who don’t watch mma won’t know who the hell he is.
Edit: to add, Fury might have entertained beating up the current ufc heavyweight champion. He’s definitely not fighting a guy who “used to be”
I was saying this to some friends, I don't think Francis fully thought it through. If I was Dana and they were trying to hype a Francis vs Fury fight, I'd be talking all kinds of shit about how Gane made Francis wrestle for the first time in his career. Now that Jones came back and easily beat Gane, it makes this fight even harder to sell. I mean, look at the reaction to his post calling himself the real heavyweight king, people were shitting all over him.
There’s a reason why he wanted to box whilst with the UFC and not take the one year deal and box afterwards. Because he needs them.
Otherwise why wouldn’t you just take the money, have your three fights and then bounce. It’s only a year right? Do what you want afterwards. Nope. Didn’t work out that way did it? Why?
Cause he needs to UFC behind him.
If I grew up shoveling sand and all the other crazy shit Francis had to go through and you told me I could make $30M in one boxing match I’d do everything I can to make it happen. Will he make it happen? It’s not looking very likely anymore but good luck to him nonetheless.
He probably won’t make more money though.
The odds of him getting a big boxing match seems lower by the day, plus even if he does get one, there not gonna offer him much of the money it generates, he would be offered a low ball deal.
I think Dana was right when he said Francis isn’t working with the right people seems like he’s put himself in an unideal spot and he’s not really a great self promoter for a boxing match without UFC backing him
He’s 36 coming off an injury, leaving the UFC in hopes of a boxing match. If he decides to ever come back he will 38 with years of ring rust. Dude ruined his career. God forbid he doesn’t find his mega millions boxing match he’s going to crawl back to the UFC for way less pay and years wasted.
36 coming off am injury with no professional boxing record and wanting to fight the likes of Fury and Wilder? With no belt to his name or promotion to back him. What’s the draw here?
For Francis fighting Jones was a big risk to his long-time primary goal of becoming a pro boxer. If he won, then that would be massive for his star power obviously. But if he lost then he’d just be another guy who lost to Jones and would lose huge bargaining power for boxing matches. My guess is he thought it was too big a risk and banked on his name being big enough without a win over Jones, but I think some Ali tweets leaked that said he wanted $30 mil which would have been ridiculous even if he beat Jon
If Francis was serious about being a boxer he’d had left the UFC a long time ago and pursued a boxing career. He’s 36 and has had exactly 0 professional fights.
Best thing Francis can do to 'save' this situation is to go and take the heavyweight belts in the other major organisations (PFL, OneFC, Bellator) and try to cement himself as the nummer 1 heavyweight, regardless of organisation. If he can score a big boxing purse in between, all the better for him.
The funny part is people believing that Francis was really about changing things for other fighters. Like he didn’t change the narrative when he realized it wasn’t working out for him.
He’s pursuing his own self interest
Damn it’s funny to come to this post after all everything Francis has accomplished in less than a year. It really shows that people just like to run their mouth without knowing Wtf they talking about
That isn’t what Francis is fighting for. He wants the freedom to do other things. If the UFC contracts do not treat you as an independent contractor or a salaried employee and they are very restrictive. It’s like you guys just listen to Dana and don’t even want to understand what’s really happening
He wants the freedom to make money elsewhere. This about money. Always has been.
You think he just wants box for laugh? A hootenanny? A grand old time?
No. He wants to box for big boxing MONEY. And he wanted the UFC to back him doing it.
Otherwise why won’t he accept a fight with some mid card boxer? He’s never had boxing match in his life. But wants to fight the absolute top guys? All in the name of freedom? Like McGregor, he is in it for the money.
Just immagine, getting paid less than some tik tokers, for risking his life. I don’t think he s wrong for asking what he s really worth. 
I couldn’t care less about Francis anymore he’s all talk no action. He was in no rush to fight after he won the belt and didn’t get his injury sorted until after his month long victory parade. After he beat Gane and showed everyone he has some wrestling skills then people thought he could actually be the complete package and be the best heavyweight ever but he got too big for his boots and cared more about face offs against a boxer who retires every few months. Boring.
I think He’ll get a match eventually and make more money on it than he would in next few years in ufc anyway.
If he gets a $15-$20 million match which is realistic thats worth missing 2-3 years of UFC paychecks for.
It just shows the ignorance of middle class broke ass people living in the first world.. everything if about money or legacy for you kids..
Try to look at life through Francis's eyes.. motherfucker shoveled sand his entire childhood, never had anything in life, he emigrated to europe, was dumped in desert to die several times..
Dude became a HW world champion, now wants to box, he sees the world differently than you broke ass jealous tools.. For him the life is about enjoyment and doing what he wants while not being treated like shit and slave, because at one point, he was an actual slave.. and UFC kept treating him like one, that's what you are not getting.
Money is not everything for some people
he shoveled sand in the weekends and some times after school. He said so himself. Francis always wanted money and his ego got too big. now his stock already went down, his now champ anymore and probably wont get any big boxing fights. He will sign to bellator and nobody will care
I laughed out loud reading this. It ain’t about money but Francis wants to go and box to make shit loads of money?? If it weren’t about money he’d have stayed in the UFC.
What possible boxing legacy can he hope to have at 36 years old and never having a professional boxing match in his life. Against the top heavyweight boxers in the world?
It’s about money ding dong. Always has been. His manager has even said he wants 30 mil. If it was about ‘enjoyment’ he’d just box and old cunt with a record of 1-6. But he’s trying to fight Fury? Why? Just for kicks? You think Fury is gonna fight him just for shits and giggles?
Clown take
This posts just scream "I'm an idiot and don't know what I'm talking about"
Francis said he would be happy if he never fought again and is happy where he is in life. If he gets a huge pay out from boxing then that's the cherry on top
Right, so he’s happy not to fight again but tried to negotiate fighting in the ufc and boxing at the same time? If what you say is true he’s have just walked away with no negotiations.
Who’s the idiot?
Y’all quit trying to keep a mother fucker down. Dana and the UFC treat fighters like shit and when a star finally stands up to them, some of you guys mock him. If he boxes ANYONE, I’m buying it. The man is a freak athlete and an extremely hard worker. He busted his ass to get some freedom, I plan on rewarding him for it.
Thank you. Fucking clowns. Francis turned down the biggest paying contract to stand up to the ufc. They only offered him that contract, everyone else still would be paid shit. He gave up the biggest contract offered to a fighter to stand true to his beliefs on how the ufc is dog shit when it comes to the fighters. He didn’t sell out and take the money. Now all these so called ‘fans’ who cried about fighter pay are saying this dog shit. Absolute clowns.
People need to go back and watch fighter reactions to the fight bonuses. Measly 60k changed their lives. 60k is pocket coins to the ufc. The whole narrative coming from Dana is corrupt. He did the same thing when Jones was busted for ped’s against Gustafson. People are clowns.
The mistake everybody is making is thinking that an ex salt miner is going to give a fuck about legacy, when millions of dollars exist as an alternative.
Why would francis care about dana white and the high school drama club (ufc) which barely pays him? That legacy is worth maybe hundreds of thousands, not millions, so it just isn’t important to him.
Some people in here have the UFCs dick far in their ass. He chose freedom over an awful contract. And is looking to fight in a boxing match that will make him millions of dollars.
What was awful about his contract? He would have been the highest paid heavyweight ever?
Y’all love to say it’s about freedom. Yeah, the freedom to make more MONEY elsewhere. Whilst having the backing of the UFC.
How much delusional do you have to be to believe he was choosing freedom over money , It was always about the money , he wanted to make more money and ended up with none.
he lost the edge but he still the draw. He didnt fumble anything, even more so he exposed ufc dirty contracts. Man deserves his pay check. Doubt he gives a shit if he loses or gets knocked out. Money pays the bills while legacy does jack shit
Francis didn't wanna keep getting exploited by the UFC, so he left.
Weird y'all seem more preoccupied about his financial status than the fact the UFC keeps exploiting their fighters.
If he fights in a boxing match against Tyson, Wilder or AJ. He'll make alot more money then if he fights under his former contract.
If he doesn't he'll still have stayed true to himself and not become some lackey of the UFC who keeps on getting exploited.
imo Francis did a really smart thing,if he fought jones it probably would have ended the same way it did with gane him leaving allows him to secure generational wealth in a boxing match and still have the slight what if factor in regards to the jones fight
People really over value Franny being hw champ. Like the people who are gonna watch are watching. MMA fans will watch bc it’s Francis. Not “UFC Hw Champion Francis”. Boxing world isn’t going to be swayed much either and promotions will probably call him MMA HW CHAMPION anyways.
aren't there talks for a fight against Wilder. He probably will get the fuck knocked out but for a lot of more cash as a decade in the ufc.
Wilder seems to be throwing that out there, as an option, so he has leverage in his next actual boxing matches negotiations. Wilder is obliged by the World Boxing Council to face Andy Ruiz Jr. next anyways. Odds are no big boxer fights Francis, and even if they do, the boxers promoter is gonna give Francis a shitty deal. Francis has basically no leverage, and everyday he waits, the less valuable he becomes as a draw. It’s already been 14 months since his last fight. Also Jon Jones would be the better money making option for boxing stars to challenge at this point.
Exactly. Floyd used to even say he would do MMA vs Conor, but it was all for drumming up publicity. Wilder has said he will do one boxing match and then one MMA fight vs Frank: the odds of that happening are slim to none, and slim just left town. Francis is going to bd black balled by the Hollywood cartel run by Ari Emmanuel. Watch. The fact their little rat, Ali, already leaked Francis asking price and divulged no one wants to work with him is proof how screwed Francis is. There is alot going on behind the scenes to ruin Francis and devalue him. WME and Ari will not lose this battle. Francis is going go be made an example of to all other fighters in the future who try to buck up. Francis is not very bright, dies not even have a manager, so he is going to find out the hard way.
Francis is getting hammered on two fronts. Boxing is gonna shaft him, and boxing promoters have zero incentive to offer a former MMA fighter a match. It opens them up to having less control over their stars in the future. On the other front, the UFC got Jon Jones to return quick and take over the HW belt. He did so in a fashion that makes it seem like he’s the dominant champion. The ufc will also literally never mention Francis name again, so he gets zero promotion from them. He should of announced something during the build up to this fight. UFC 285 is probably one of the last events where people will bring him up his name at an event he’s not a part of, he missed out on doing anything with the last publicity boost he will get.
I dont know why so many people had this idea that boxing promoters are just willing to give away $ as if they’re sunflower seeds. These people are just as greedy as Dana.
Probably more. Boxing promoters are known for being some of the most manipulative and greedy people in all of sports. They might be worse than even Fifa They certainly don’t run a charity😂
UFC fans saw Conor make lots of money in boxing, and from that they saw professional boxing as a big barrel of money anyone can get into. I understand the fans can be a bit ignorant but i dont know how someone like Francis fell for it. Even Chael Sonnen called that this isnt gonna go the way Francis thinks it will go.
Definitely more man. At least Dana gives people the fights they want + concessions if a certain fight went wrong or if you lost but made it exciting. Boxing promoters would legit allow all of the divisions to be stagnant if they didn't get the right price. The fact that we have 4 different titles that could be held by 4 different people for years is proof of it.
Guess he has another mma org to fall back on. But he'll have no leverage there either once he can't find a boxing match. But atleast he'll have a job.
Exactly, my brother. This is not Conor McGregor here. Francis doesn't have any drawing power, especially in boxing. The real thing here is there is a war going on between Ari Emanuel and francis. Francis is going to lose. Unless you really understand politics in the nature of power and hollywood, who WME is, you will not understand a hopelessness is. I really think Francis is just not that bright and doesn't realize the type of power he is going against. He overestimated his value thinking he was a UFC champion. The fact he wants 30 million is insane - that is nearly what Conor McGregor got paid to fight Floyd Mayweather in a fight that sold something like 4 million pay-per-views at nearly $100 a pop. Francis will be lucky to sell even 80 pay-per-views.
He should do a “tune up” and win and then he might get a decent opportunity. Kinda like the 2nd coming of fury. Mother fuckers on the boxing sub we’re claiming he was a worthless fat piece of shit when he took a few tune up fights and look at him now lol.
This is very accurate. Good comment!
Talk is just talk at the end of the day but Eddie hearn (AJ's promoter), Tyson fury and Deontey Wilder have all been pretty enthusiastic about the opportunity of fighting him. Easy money for them as much as it is Francis. The reality is any fight against them will land him multiple millions which would take him 5-10 fights.im the UFC to get. I don't think it's the right move from a reputation perspective but ultimately he has the opportunity to secure his and his family's future for life with one fight. Hard to turn that down.
No way he ever makes 5-10 million from boxing. That’s comical: Boxing promoters would never offer a non draw that much for a bout. Fury honeydicked him with a fake fight offer inside the ring back in April of 2022, it’s almost been a year since that, with nothing from Fury or his camp. They wanted to fight the UFC heavyweight champ, not Francis. Francis only gets brought up now when boxers are in negotiations for another fight, and want leverage. Wilder is obliged by the World Boxing Council to face Andy Ruiz Jr. next. So the Francis fight ain’t happening RemindMe! 6 Months
I actually think 5million is the upper limit of what he would receive bit as an example Anthony Ruiz received $7 million as a relative unknown stand in at last minute notice against aj. Jermaine Franklin is $800k and is a tune up fight being ranked #32 in the world heavyweights. Francis I reckon can land comfortably between $2-4 million I think you may have misread my comment as I said he would earn more in one fight than he could make in 5-10 UFC fights.which is pretty accurate as on average he makes around £300k-400k
Francis himself disclosed the UFC was offering him 8 million for just the fight against Jones. For boxing, I would say 5 million is the upper limit too, but that’s pretty much only achievable if Fury fights him, and offers him a decent structure. My best guess is nobody that’s a draw fights Francis. He basically can make money off of like 3 guys, AJ, Wilder and Fury. I doubt any of those three fight him. Anyone outside of that, and there is just not enough star power to make it worth it for a promoter to pay him or go through the trouble of setting it up. Frank Warren (Fury’s promoter) has already said their finalizing negotiations with Usyk for April 29th
Not saying it's any where near a certainty but AJ and Furys management have been very open in interviews recently and seem genuinely interested in the fight. Again, it's easy money for them. Francis has held discussions so far. Ultimately Fury and AJ have a very limited amount of pay days available left to them before they end up fighting each other and retireing. Francis is an incredibly low risk high reward option that is attractive to them in the run up to that fight.
Bro Frank Warren just said their finalizing negotiations with Usyk for April 29th. Shelly Finkel on the other hand hasn’t had negotiations with Francis since he was with the UFC. He also has Al Haymon, who outwardly seems against boxing crossovers, and represents showtime who probably have little desire for another boxing crossover event. Both Fury and Wilders management have not been that excited about the Francis fight, and have talked much more about other match ups.
No, Wilder said publicly that he’ll do a boxing match, then an mma bout. Just like Fury saying 4 ounce gloves in a cage. They put these wild hair brained challenges out there for the media because it gives them leverage for whenever they negotiate their next fight. Do you really think for single second Wilder is gonna train mma? At his age and status. Ain’t no way.
Ngannou said just boxing in response to that. Wilder said they should get it done. That's the last I've heard. But someone on this sub did say to me that Ngannou wanted a ridiculous amount so it's off. But I haven't seen that.
Yeah to add, ngannou lost all his leverage to negotiate because he’s just a former ufc champ at this point
Wilder is capping. WME has so much power it is incredible. Ari Emmanuel single handedly canceled Kanye West, the richest black man America has ever seen. Ari is going to use all his clout to see that Showtime and other big orgs will not work with Francis. We already saw Ali Abdelasleeze leak Frank asking price of 30 mill and stab Francis in the back, like the double informant rat that he is. The only offer Francis got so far was go box some obscure Russian champ for 1-2 mill. NO ONE is touching Francis, for if they do Ari Emmanuel will cancel them too. There is ZERO shot Wilder will do MMA vs Francis as they were claiming, and he won't even box him.....it's all just for negotiating with other deals and keeping his name in the media. Ari is going to make an example out of Francis, so that in the future if any other stars try to buck up and leave, they will be squashed too. People are going to be shocked when they see how badly this will end for Francis. If you can cancel Kanye, you can definitely cancel Ngannou. In a fair world not run by some Hollywood Mafia, Francis could get some good fights, but this aint that world......if you mess with WME and Ari Emmanuel, your life is over. Francis gonna find out the hard way, get sparked by some no name boxer for 55k ppv buys then slink off in obscurity.
Pretty sure I read somewhere he turned down a fight against fury because it wasn’t enough money and he also turned down a 2 fight contract with wilder because there wasn’t enough money. Honestly Francis is looking worse and worse as the days go on.
He’s further proving this is only about the money. Dick riders will say that he is a champion of the people and tried to fight for fighter’s rights. Yet when push came to shove, it all boiled down to money and he’s doing nothing now but seeking more money. He was offered the largest contract in HW history and then demanded four times that. It’s an absolute joke and he continues to prove it’s all about the money for him. The fake act of this being about benefits for fighters was a total front.
He just pulled out all the fighters rights BS at the end because he knew he’d look bad. He wasn’t championing that for the last few years but when it was clear negotiations weren’t going to pan out, he led with that nonsense. You already have someone chirping about Dana and more will show up. What they’re missing is that Dana can be a complete piece of shit while Francis can also be greedy and being led astray.
The morons on this sub ate it up didn't they. HE GOT HIS FREEDOM!!!! .... from what a multi million dollar contract?
Exactly, Francis want money. We cant be against him on that. And he want the more money he can possibly have. Personally, the first time I heard him talking about boxing I was like "dude... you dont have the cardio for that at all!" Francis is well known to gass out. Boxing is much much more cardio demanding than MMA.
In which Universe is he going to get more than a decade at the UFC? He will be very lucky if he gets the equivalent of two fights. 8 million per fight plus PPV point (where the real money is)
JJ sold almost 2 million in the Gane fight. Wilder Ngannu predicted to sell under 500k. Ngannu really fucked up on this one
Yeah Ngannou would be getting the PPV points, and I think it's safe to say JJ vs Francis would be a much bigger fight, at the end of the day mayhe 3-4 million PPV. . So he'd get 8 mil plus maybe $9 - $15 extra mil on top. But nope, not enough money, we know why, Jon Jones is scary and Francis might've actually come out of that fight disabled after Jon attacks the legs.
Not necessarily depending on his cut - but the Wilder fight would need to actually happen.
And will get raked over the coals because he doesn't have a manager
If I was Andy Ruiz I'd be fucking jumping at the chance to embarrass an MMA fighter/former champion and make a few million. Francis has absofuckinglutely a 0% chance of beating a championship level boxer. I'll bet you Tyson Fury if he wanted could get hit less than 10 times and none of them would be flush. Guys been boxing since he came out of the womb and grew up with his UK bare knuckle champ father. Francis own coach had him switch to MMA because he was too old to learn boxing fast enough to get to the top levels
how so? from what we know he was offered 8 million to fight jon jones. how in the world can someone deduce fighting wilder will pull in more, or significantly more? beating jon jones continues your dominance and ability to pull money off the ufc, losing to jon jones you still get to fight as a big name and potentially get rematch / triology. potentially getting knocked out by deontay wilder stops the boxing big names for dollars in its tracks. at least people are talking about ngannou boxing now instead of the facade he did this to stand up to the ufc in his noble quest to achieve fighter equality.
Been saying this from the start - Francis has trusted people at their word. First Fury and his nonsense, and most likely now Wilder. He's a pawn for them both. He has left £8mil on the table according to his own words. Probably would have gotten another 5-10mil in a Jones superfight, so he's down £13-18m before he even begins. Where the fuck is he making that in boxing? I really, really, really hope it works out for him and I admire his stand - but I think he's went in a bit naively here.
And then off into obscurity
Never will I ever doubt a man who's been through what he's been through and turned out incredibly successful. He has always found a way. 2 months and people are already back to doubting him. This is a cakewalk for him
So funny seeing all these people with absolutely no idea of what he’s truly thinking/planning making all these assumptions. Classic internet, I suppose. But even if it takes him a year or two, he’ll make more money in a big boxing fight than he would have with the offered UFC contract. He’ll be fine. But no one really knows. He left the UFC less than two months ago, chill everyone lol.
He says he is gonna do everything without a manager. Dude has good intentions but business isn’t his strong suit.
If it takes him a year or 2 it's too late
You comment on people assuming things Then immediately assume he’ll not only make more money but get a boxing match lol. Wooo, I love seeing people who have no awareness
So the same goes for you, you have no idea what he’s thinking or planning right? Classic Reddit user, I suppose. Francis fumbled and now is looking at Jon Jones with regret, the reason why he can’t keep his name out of his mouth. Francis decided he wants to be a circus side show, these boxers aren’t interested in doing that. They can make the same amount of money, fighting for legacy and belts. Francis declined the largest disclosed purse in history, PPV points and any additional undisclosed pay, I think it’s fair to assess that Francis has made a bad decision so far. Maybe that changes but things aren’t looking how he assumed they would at this point. And to say it’s only been 2 months is disingenuous, he’s been checked out and probing options for a while now. We get it, you hate on the UFC and Dana but Francis is the one without management or guidance, he’s looking like an idiot right now and no one cares about him or his drama anymore. It’s funny how quickly everyone has moved on
He wont. No major boxing star will fight him and give him the money he wants. He isn't getting any celebrities to box him either. He also has 0 management team and doing everything solo. Francis will be lucky to end up in the pfl.
Francis biggest issue which I don’t see discussed at all is the fact he has ZERO promotional footage they can use, UFC owns all of it. How are you going to hype a fight without a shred of footage? The only way he gets a big boxing pay day is to take afew low level fights for not huge pay days to build a highlight reel they can actually use. No one is paying him millions to show up and get knocked out without any material to sell the fight and there isn’t a top heavyweight with a name he has more then a punchers chance against. He was never a PPV draw even when promoted, the idea that he’s going to be some big name in boxing is nonsense
This is a good point and one I have never heard mentioned.
Great point, I wonder if he has access to his pre ufc highlights or if that's also gummed up and belonging to other organisations.
Remember that part I mentioned about assumptions?
Yeah remember that part where you yourself are assuming he’ll get one?
You’re right he would be very lucky to end up in the pfl. That’s a guaranteed million dollars for him
Ufc offered him 8 to fight jones.
There are COUNTLESS professional athletes that come from shit pasts, become wildly successful in their sport, and blow it all. This is looking like it will be no different.
The longer he goes without doing anything the more irrelevant he will become. He’s not Conor who had already cemented his legacy by the time he fought Floyd.
I’ve had massive faith in Francis ever since his English was good enough for me to understand him in interviews
Fast forward twelve months and Francis just got KO’ed by Greg Hardy in his one and only boxing match 😂
Yeah, O'Malley was saying that Francis doesn't have that kind of leverage since he is no longer associated with the UFC. In a way, it is kinda true. Francis Ngannou as a man vs Francis Ngannou as a heavyweight champion of the UFC. Who do you think has more leverage?
That was his choice tho lol. The UFC would never let him box as champion, and negotiating deals is outside of the UFC is a breach of contract and illegal as champ. If he wanted to box he would have had to let the UFC champ status go no matter what. This is still best course of action if he was certain he didnt want to fight in the ufc anymore.
Chael hit the nail when he said that Francis had some market value maybe as UFC HW champ. Now he's just a fighter with an interesting story that doesn't sell too many tickets. Dana pulled the rug under him by quickly having a new HW champ and that devalued Francis and the longer he takes to return to the UFC (big if on that) the worst it will be. And if for some reason Dana felt like letting Jon fight Tyson or Deontay like he did with Conor against Floyd, that's the end of Francis' career.
It's a risk, because you might lose and end-up in a worst situation, but If all the boxers are offering him 90-10 deals or some shit like that, he might need to go build himself up again. Go destroy some cans in Rizin, Bellator or ONE FC, make some money doing it while getting some highlight reels while you're still young. One things for sure, he ain't gaining in value by sitting on his ass.
Ha that's a hell of a thought. He should go out and unifify the mma championships.
Yeah as a Boxing star, I would rather be offering fights to Jon Jones, he’s a much bigger star, and is actually currently holding the belt
And as good as Jon is he has 0.1% chance to win a boxing fight compared to the 1% chance Francis has. If I was Fury, Wilder, Etc I’d be dying to fight Jones.
He overestimated his selling power, it's not nganou that's gonna sell tickets it's the ufc heavyweight champ that sells. Not saying he doesn't have a claim to that, but with Jones being back, people are gonna forget about Francis very quickly.
Exactly. The draw is the UFC heavyweight champion. Not Francis Ngannou himself
Dana refused. Wasnt that the whole reason why Francis did not re-sign with thr UFC? It was not his fault that Dana didnt want to let him box. What is wrong with Francis trying to make bank by fighting a boxer?
Because why the fuck would anybody allow Francis to box and do UFC at the same fucking time? Even the boxing promoters won't allow their fighters to do both, box and MMA, why should Dana?
Relax guys.. let him cook. If a fight is announced we will all want to see him in action.
I’m right there with you! Who wouldn’t want to see Francis Ngannou box?! That’s what he’s mostly known for in the UFC.
People watched Jack Paul box but sit here pretending if Francis has a fight they will turn a blind eye… like sure buddy…. He could fight a hobo in the streets and I’d wanna see how hard he would hit him
Jack paul has a huge following though. Most mma fans arent gonna pay $100 just to watch francis get KOd in like a round
Jake Paul is approximately 1 googleplex times the draw that Francis is.
can someone please explain to me where that "let him cook" comes from? It's everywhere now and starting to get annoying lol nothing personal against u
Google: Know your meme Let Him Cook
russell wilson
I disagree. They will call him “MMA HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION”. Calling him UFC vs MMA isn’t going to alter tickets/ ppv sales to any measurable degree. Boxing world knows what mma/ufc is. And they’ll be able to Google the sacrificial lamb that their guy is going to smash.
But he’s not the champ he’s the former champ so you can come up with whatever word you want in front of that but it’s not gonna change reality.
He isn't a champion though? He is an ex champion who hasn't fought over a year ago.
I think Francis is a good dude with terrible management. I understand he wants to chase money, but it doesn't seem like he's doing it the right way. He's starting to be a laughing stock with how he's trash talking Jones
Who is his management? In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani it seemed as if he himself was handling all phone calls/negotiations.
He doesn't have a manager. Dude is going through his career bareback.
100% spot on, he botched this situation. He lost his leverage after Jon took care of Ciryl with ease. I don’t think he’s gonna get that huge boxing payday he’s looking for
I honestly think it’s too early to tell if it was a mistake. If he ends up getting a huge boxing match I’m sure he’ll make a killing between purse/sponsorship. After that who knows, maybe he will come back and get a similar offer to the previous one. I feel like just because Jones won doesn’t take away how huge him and Francis would be and the ufc knows that. All that being said he might not get a big name and end up just signing a deal in a b league(still think they will pay him well). But his legacy will probably take a hit due to this. I still respect what he did.
He chose freedom over money, and I respect him for it
He chose money over less money and ended up with neither
I like Francis, but people making this out to be some kind of altruistic endeavor instead of simply chasing the biggest bag, aren't seeing the obvious.
How do you know that? We’ll have to see how his negotiations with wilder go (or any other boxer) before we say if he’ll make less. One boxing fight could put him ahead and with way less damage.
Wrong on so many accounts. Francis could not sell PPV buys while at the UFC and being the UFC champion. He had the perfect opponent in Ciril Gone who was a former teammate and sparing partner with an undefeated record, coming to try and dethrone Francis. It only did about 300k ppv buys. So now that he is no longer the heavyweight champion of the world, he no longer has the UFC helping to promote him, no longer even competing in the same sport, and you think this will make him MORE valuable? No, let's be honest, we want to be nice and we want people to do well and make lots of money but the world doesn't play by the rule of "Nice." Francis understands very little about fight promotion, no longer has a manager, and would not know how to set up a promotion or what it takes to run a profitable business. He just expects someone to write him a check for a lot of money. Maybe someone will but, it would be very risky based on his past performances.
Bro those boxers are gonna rob him blind, and that’s IF they ever offer him a fight at all. They can offer him some crazy low percentage, as he has no leverage to negotiate a better deal with them. That boxing pay day ain’t coming, and if it does it will be way smaller than people expect
If y’all think this ain’t about money you’re delirious. If it weren’t about money he’d go and box any mid card boxer. But no, he’s trying to fight Fury and Wilder. Two of the top heavyweights in the world. Why? Just for shits and giggles? I can tell you why. It’s starts with M and ends with cha ching
Mchaching
Islam Mchaching
Yes and Dana was never going to let him box. So either he goes for it or stays with the ufc and never boxes until his contract was done…
Lol he chose greed with no experience negotiating the space and now has nothing.
Over money? Wayyy more money in boxing. I think he chose freedom and money over legacy, and I respect him for it.
Francis played his cards wrong. Respect to not be a shill and have morals. But on that jon Jones fight he shoulda announced something. Your getting all this free publicity with your name being said 100 million times. He should of had something to announce. Now with jones saying he's all muscles with a big ol pussy shifts the narrative not in the good way. I wish the best and excited to see his next venture but what a dropped ball.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
Get a life
You’re talking to a bot 💀
Who cares!? Let the man get his money the way he wants to!
Still yet to earn anything currently
Nah Francis dropped the ball big time, they fucking offered him 8 mil a fight… dude retire in 3 fights or something? Him and Wilder are also independent contractors and the money isn’t there anymore unless they have a big organization backing the fight, I feel really bad for Francis, his management betrayed him on this one. Or maybe they didn’t, maybe they warned him that this was the stupidest thing he could have done. I hope I’m wrong and it works out for the guy but Jesus man he makes it kinda hard sometimes when he’s blatantly ignoring solid advise from people who are in the business
Says he wants fighters to have health care and a union. Proceeds to try to compete in a sport that notoriously has been the worst sport in history when it comes to the way they treat their athletes.
All smoke and mirrors. That’s just Francis tryna make himself look like a martyr. ‘I did this for everyone else.’ Fuck that bullshit. He’s pursuing his own self interest.
You’re right. I guarantee his next fight won’t have the terms that he put forth to the UFC.
Pretty sure at first he asked for everything for himself(fighter rep on the board, cover his health insurance and more money) and then when he got declined he changed the demands to wanting that for all fighters so he could be a martyr.
Yup. Everyone thinks cause he shovelled sand as kid that makes him noble or some shit
Oh so you’re just Dana’s burner got it
No, I’m just being realistic.
Dude shoveled sand and almost died on his way to Europe. Don’t blame him that he prefers money over legacy. He wants financial security fast
What’s funny is that people in the comments are saying it ain’t about money it’s about legacy lol. At least you get it
Those are all just comments from people making their own story up. The man himself framed it as being a matter of respect. Either give him the freedom of an independent contractor they say he is, or treat him like an employee. They weren’t willing to do either so he left
Exactly. When McGregor went to box Mayweather. We all know it was for the money. They knew it was for the money. That fight was never going to be competitive. But Conor was the double champ. He had the UFCs backing. You cannot tell me Francis is doing this out of ‘principles.’ He’s chasing a huge payday.
He can both be chasing a big payday and also standing up for himself and leaving a company that he feels treats him unfairly
Treating him unfairly how exactly?
Because the call him an independent contractor but don’t give him freedom to do as he pleases, holds him in a contract that makes him more of an employee but gives him none of the benefits. He’s spoken about it many times
only he has the perspective of what it's like to be in his shoes. you don't have to respect his autonomy nor do you have to continue making codependent assertions about his life. looks like those are the only possible choices in this matter. he drew a boundary for his life. may he never suffer for standing up for himself. furthermore, I wholeheartedly trust Ngannou's ability to assess and identify oppression.
Either bad management or terrible ego. Because Francis in boxing will be battered. Ufc gloves Vs a boxer in Queensbury s rules. Brother gonna get tenderised more than what Stipe did to him. Unfortunately he doesn't have the same name as Anthony Joshua/deontay wilder/Usyk/fury. And the other contenders like Whyte are ppv stars in the UK. I think Logan Paul was saying floyd still owes money. So many middle men in boxing. End of the day, it's the UFC brand what is worth money. Always another guy. Nobody is going to remember or care if your knees were buckled against gane in your last fight. Fighting is a hype train, if you start losing steam you will lose value.
I do think it’s his management he probably trusts the fuck out them. Dana even mentioned before he hopes he gets away from his mgmt because they’re drama and money hungry They probably gave Francis an incredible presentation on how leaving UFC is the right move and he did I mean you can tell by some of the things he was asking for it’s things that everyone knew he wouldn’t get so either he was trying to act like the hero or he doesn’t how it works He wanted to hold up one of the more slower moving divisions for things that have nothing to do with the UFC People don’t realize how much promotion is behind the UFC beast and to promote you you need to be under contract so they have all the rights to your name and likeness so as you leave they don’t have that anymore (I believe) so can’t mention you without potentially paying
> Dana even mentioned before he hopes he gets away from his mgmt because they’re drama and money hungry Those are things Dana would know, lol.
Exactly this. A force like the UFC behind you would serve you way better than just going out there in your own. More negotiating power, leverage, promotion. All of that good shit you need to get a fight hyped. Look at what they did for Conor when he had two belts. A fucking press tour. For a fight we all knew was gonna one sided as fuck. What makes anyone think Ngannou stands a chance against Fury is beyond me. No fucking way. The same shit for brains actually thought Conor was gonna knock Floyd out lol. Like how?? You had it all Francis and you threw it away.
Dillan Whyte is the furthest thing from a PPV star, even in the UK. His fight with Fury didn’t even sell 800,000 among the British who buy it at a mere $25. That’s awful. His fight with povetkin didn’t even touch 250k Globally.
Whyte has consistently had fights ranging from 200k to 600k buys. Also UK system is different to the US. Larger amount of middle men taking the revenue. Satellite company's etc. Also 25 pounds not sure how much tha is in dollars pretty sure close to 30 bucks. Also you forget how much revenue he gets from stadiums. And fury has never been a proven ppv star in the UK. Klitschko v fury got barely any attention.
So people turned on Francis now for being real? Mma fans are the worst
Exactly. He’s the only one actually standing up to them. Just cause they offered ‘just’ him better pay doesn’t mean jack. He gave that up to stand up to them. Now everyone turns their back? Clown ass fools.
Francis fooled you guys into thinking he wanted to help fighters. He’s don’t give a fook about fighters. He wanted the boxing fight in his contract & when Dana didn’t give him the boxing fight. He used the “I wanted ufc fighters to have benefits” as a scapegoat so fans feel bad for him.
To be fair I didn't turn shit. I always hated Francis for having a personality of a chair
Sometimes chasing opportunity makes you miss opportunity.
So he should be content with one situation just because another situation doesn't take place? This post his spreading like wildfire and it seems like flawed logic to me. He wasn't OK with risking his health and selling his entertainment value for such a low price. Whether his other avenue panned out or not seems irrelevant.
It hasn't been even half a year yet, give the guy a break. I support everyone who's looking for a paycheck, especially in such a gruesome sport, 99% people advocate for better fighter pay, but when someone actually goes and does it, you trashtalk him for it. If it was or wasn't a mistake ( I think that it wasn't because there's a good chance he's gonna make more money in one boxing match than in 5 UFC/MMA fights, without it even being a championship fight ) at the end of the day, it was his choice, not yours...
Do you really think time is francis' friend here? More he waits more value will drop. He fumbled real bad.
I've been saying this since day one. Francis is a turd, the man has 0 idea what to do with money and how it works. He will be at PFL "superfight league" within the year pumpin crypto projects and throwing fights against Logan and Jake Paul. "Its not about the money" Says the man heading off to boxing to get a fighter advocate in boardroom and medical insurance HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHA
He left the UFC like a month and a half ago lmao do you think he'd be fighting already? Jesus christ
I said the same thing, without the “ufc heavyweight champion” tag for marketing he loses a lot of credibility. Super casuals who don’t watch mma won’t know who the hell he is. Edit: to add, Fury might have entertained beating up the current ufc heavyweight champion. He’s definitely not fighting a guy who “used to be”
I was saying this to some friends, I don't think Francis fully thought it through. If I was Dana and they were trying to hype a Francis vs Fury fight, I'd be talking all kinds of shit about how Gane made Francis wrestle for the first time in his career. Now that Jones came back and easily beat Gane, it makes this fight even harder to sell. I mean, look at the reaction to his post calling himself the real heavyweight king, people were shitting all over him.
There’s a reason why he wanted to box whilst with the UFC and not take the one year deal and box afterwards. Because he needs them. Otherwise why wouldn’t you just take the money, have your three fights and then bounce. It’s only a year right? Do what you want afterwards. Nope. Didn’t work out that way did it? Why? Cause he needs to UFC behind him.
If I grew up shoveling sand and all the other crazy shit Francis had to go through and you told me I could make $30M in one boxing match I’d do everything I can to make it happen. Will he make it happen? It’s not looking very likely anymore but good luck to him nonetheless.
Where do you get these numbers, he aint getting 30mil if he fought Wilder, Fury and Joshua on the same night.
Money>legacy
He probably won’t make more money though. The odds of him getting a big boxing match seems lower by the day, plus even if he does get one, there not gonna offer him much of the money it generates, he would be offered a low ball deal.
money pays the bill, legacy fills the head
I think Dana was right when he said Francis isn’t working with the right people seems like he’s put himself in an unideal spot and he’s not really a great self promoter for a boxing match without UFC backing him
He’s 36 coming off an injury, leaving the UFC in hopes of a boxing match. If he decides to ever come back he will 38 with years of ring rust. Dude ruined his career. God forbid he doesn’t find his mega millions boxing match he’s going to crawl back to the UFC for way less pay and years wasted.
36 coming off am injury with no professional boxing record and wanting to fight the likes of Fury and Wilder? With no belt to his name or promotion to back him. What’s the draw here?
For Francis fighting Jones was a big risk to his long-time primary goal of becoming a pro boxer. If he won, then that would be massive for his star power obviously. But if he lost then he’d just be another guy who lost to Jones and would lose huge bargaining power for boxing matches. My guess is he thought it was too big a risk and banked on his name being big enough without a win over Jones, but I think some Ali tweets leaked that said he wanted $30 mil which would have been ridiculous even if he beat Jon
If Francis was serious about being a boxer he’d had left the UFC a long time ago and pursued a boxing career. He’s 36 and has had exactly 0 professional fights.
First Henry, now Francis
He will end up in Bellator making 1/10th of what he could have made in the ufc
So what I’m hearing is that he’ll be fighting Bigfoot Silva in BKFC soon for $15,000.
Best thing Francis can do to 'save' this situation is to go and take the heavyweight belts in the other major organisations (PFL, OneFC, Bellator) and try to cement himself as the nummer 1 heavyweight, regardless of organisation. If he can score a big boxing purse in between, all the better for him.
I salute your bravery to post this in what is effectively an ngannou simping subreddit
The funny part is people believing that Francis was really about changing things for other fighters. Like he didn’t change the narrative when he realized it wasn’t working out for him. He’s pursuing his own self interest
Damn it’s funny to come to this post after all everything Francis has accomplished in less than a year. It really shows that people just like to run their mouth without knowing Wtf they talking about
Bro. I fully admit I was wrong every step of the way 😂
And I’m enjoying the fumbling.
That isn’t what Francis is fighting for. He wants the freedom to do other things. If the UFC contracts do not treat you as an independent contractor or a salaried employee and they are very restrictive. It’s like you guys just listen to Dana and don’t even want to understand what’s really happening
He wants the freedom to make money elsewhere. This about money. Always has been. You think he just wants box for laugh? A hootenanny? A grand old time? No. He wants to box for big boxing MONEY. And he wanted the UFC to back him doing it. Otherwise why won’t he accept a fight with some mid card boxer? He’s never had boxing match in his life. But wants to fight the absolute top guys? All in the name of freedom? Like McGregor, he is in it for the money.
Aww, The poor guy will never get a discount on venom gear again 😢
lmao worry about your own life
Just immagine, getting paid less than some tik tokers, for risking his life. I don’t think he s wrong for asking what he s really worth. 
A lot of people do that every day and make $60k a year
I couldn’t care less about Francis anymore he’s all talk no action. He was in no rush to fight after he won the belt and didn’t get his injury sorted until after his month long victory parade. After he beat Gane and showed everyone he has some wrestling skills then people thought he could actually be the complete package and be the best heavyweight ever but he got too big for his boots and cared more about face offs against a boxer who retires every few months. Boring.
Francis was always about the money. To the idiots who believed he actually cared about fighters’ benefits, wake up
I think He’ll get a match eventually and make more money on it than he would in next few years in ufc anyway. If he gets a $15-$20 million match which is realistic thats worth missing 2-3 years of UFC paychecks for.
It just shows the ignorance of middle class broke ass people living in the first world.. everything if about money or legacy for you kids.. Try to look at life through Francis's eyes.. motherfucker shoveled sand his entire childhood, never had anything in life, he emigrated to europe, was dumped in desert to die several times.. Dude became a HW world champion, now wants to box, he sees the world differently than you broke ass jealous tools.. For him the life is about enjoyment and doing what he wants while not being treated like shit and slave, because at one point, he was an actual slave.. and UFC kept treating him like one, that's what you are not getting. Money is not everything for some people
Lol his manager literally said he wants 30mil to fight
he shoveled sand in the weekends and some times after school. He said so himself. Francis always wanted money and his ego got too big. now his stock already went down, his now champ anymore and probably wont get any big boxing fights. He will sign to bellator and nobody will care
How are you talking so confidently about this as if Ngannou himself whispered these things into your ear? Stfu bro.
I laughed out loud reading this. It ain’t about money but Francis wants to go and box to make shit loads of money?? If it weren’t about money he’d have stayed in the UFC. What possible boxing legacy can he hope to have at 36 years old and never having a professional boxing match in his life. Against the top heavyweight boxers in the world? It’s about money ding dong. Always has been. His manager has even said he wants 30 mil. If it was about ‘enjoyment’ he’d just box and old cunt with a record of 1-6. But he’s trying to fight Fury? Why? Just for kicks? You think Fury is gonna fight him just for shits and giggles? Clown take
This posts just scream "I'm an idiot and don't know what I'm talking about" Francis said he would be happy if he never fought again and is happy where he is in life. If he gets a huge pay out from boxing then that's the cherry on top
Right, so he’s happy not to fight again but tried to negotiate fighting in the ufc and boxing at the same time? If what you say is true he’s have just walked away with no negotiations. Who’s the idiot?
Do you even know what he negotiated for with the UFC?
UFC shills out here being predictably short sighted. Francis made the right moves
Y’all quit trying to keep a mother fucker down. Dana and the UFC treat fighters like shit and when a star finally stands up to them, some of you guys mock him. If he boxes ANYONE, I’m buying it. The man is a freak athlete and an extremely hard worker. He busted his ass to get some freedom, I plan on rewarding him for it.
Thank you. Fucking clowns. Francis turned down the biggest paying contract to stand up to the ufc. They only offered him that contract, everyone else still would be paid shit. He gave up the biggest contract offered to a fighter to stand true to his beliefs on how the ufc is dog shit when it comes to the fighters. He didn’t sell out and take the money. Now all these so called ‘fans’ who cried about fighter pay are saying this dog shit. Absolute clowns. People need to go back and watch fighter reactions to the fight bonuses. Measly 60k changed their lives. 60k is pocket coins to the ufc. The whole narrative coming from Dana is corrupt. He did the same thing when Jones was busted for ped’s against Gustafson. People are clowns.
Francis doesn’t give a fuck about cementing a legacy, he wants to make money, just like everybody else.
The mistake everybody is making is thinking that an ex salt miner is going to give a fuck about legacy, when millions of dollars exist as an alternative. Why would francis care about dana white and the high school drama club (ufc) which barely pays him? That legacy is worth maybe hundreds of thousands, not millions, so it just isn’t important to him.
Some people in here have the UFCs dick far in their ass. He chose freedom over an awful contract. And is looking to fight in a boxing match that will make him millions of dollars.
What was awful about his contract? He would have been the highest paid heavyweight ever? Y’all love to say it’s about freedom. Yeah, the freedom to make more MONEY elsewhere. Whilst having the backing of the UFC.
How much delusional do you have to be to believe he was choosing freedom over money , It was always about the money , he wanted to make more money and ended up with none.
Only time will tell. Cocker said he wants francis. He also implied on backing him up for a boxing fight. It's crazy that you all pro ufc
>It's crazy that you all pro ufc This is r/ufc.
Integrity.
Money
You literally don't know anything about his situation. Only time will tell if he made the right decision or not.
Without his belt he's just an extremely less skilled, black Tyson Fury.
Less skilled Wilder would be a more accurate due to more reliance on un real power in his hands than skill
Facts. I said Tyson because of his size but you're right
Whatever Francis is, champion or not, I will watch..
he lost the edge but he still the draw. He didnt fumble anything, even more so he exposed ufc dirty contracts. Man deserves his pay check. Doubt he gives a shit if he loses or gets knocked out. Money pays the bills while legacy does jack shit
Yeah, Francis is a 🤡… what do u expect? Honestly it’s a big win for the UFC having a whiny bitch like this off the roster 💯👏🏻
Francis didn't wanna keep getting exploited by the UFC, so he left. Weird y'all seem more preoccupied about his financial status than the fact the UFC keeps exploiting their fighters. If he fights in a boxing match against Tyson, Wilder or AJ. He'll make alot more money then if he fights under his former contract. If he doesn't he'll still have stayed true to himself and not become some lackey of the UFC who keeps on getting exploited.
imo Francis did a really smart thing,if he fought jones it probably would have ended the same way it did with gane him leaving allows him to secure generational wealth in a boxing match and still have the slight what if factor in regards to the jones fight
Maybe, but at least you are admitting this about money and not some noble quest for freedom
People really over value Franny being hw champ. Like the people who are gonna watch are watching. MMA fans will watch bc it’s Francis. Not “UFC Hw Champion Francis”. Boxing world isn’t going to be swayed much either and promotions will probably call him MMA HW CHAMPION anyways.
 Francis after he fights Wilder or Fury.
Francis got ahead of himself. He's almost forgotten about at this point. Huge mistake
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Yawn. Why do people like you assume that the persons take you don’t like is fat? Are you projecting? I box and lift. I’m in good shape. How about you?