We often get to hear the same Dana White stories repeated in the numerous interviews he does, but during his latest appearance on the ‘Flagrant’ podcast the UFC CEO dropped a brand new bombshell as he detailed a behind-the-scenes story alleging that Francis Ngannou attempted to physically intimidate him into getting a post-fight bonus.
It’s been known for a long-time that there’s no love lost between White and Ngannou, which was presumed to be down to the two not seeing eye-to-eye during their protracted contract negotiations while he was the UFC’s heavyweight champion that eventually led to him leaving the promotion to sign a lucrative deal with PFL instead.
However, White has now revealed that there’s much more to the story of their fractured relationship than that.
“Francis Ngannou is a bad guy,” White said on the Flagrant podcast. “He’s not a good guy. He plays the whole, I don’t understand the language, and he tries to come off like he’s a f**king nice guy… There’s no f**king language barrier with this guy. He’s a bad guy. And I told my guys, I wanted to cut him early, and two of my matchmaker guys were like, ‘Oh, no. You don’t understand.’ I was like guys, let me tell you a story. When somebody shows you who they are, believe them. Believe them.
“So, he’s going in to fight Stipe Miocic in Boston, and he knows he’s going to f**king kill Stipe. Right? So, after the press conference we’re walking down this hallway and he comes over to me. He grabs me and he says, ‘Let me tell you what’s going to happen.’ His English is f**king great.
“No language barrier whatsoever. ‘When this fight’s over, you’re going to book me a private plane to Paris.’ I laughed and said, oh yeah? He said, ‘I’m not joking. You’re going to book me a private plane to Paris.’ I said, okay. So, we go our separate ways. Stipe Miocic beats the f**king sh*t out of him. Beats the sh*t out of him, so that ended that whole conversation. I should have f**king cut him that day.”
White then went on to detail another backstage story that feeds into the narrative that Ngannou was a bully behind the scenes.
“So when you’re an athlete that’s signed by the UFC, you get full access to the Performance Institute, you can eat there for free, everything’s free and do all this stuff. This guy was f*cking living there,” White said. “He had just fought and he comes up to my office, he’s in the hallway, or whatever, hanging out and I said ‘come on in, what’s going on?’
“He was pissed off he didn’t get a $50,000 in his last fight, that he didn’t get the bonus of the night. I said Francis you didn’t get it because this and that. And he’s in my office and he’s arguing with me. I’m like this guy got this, this guy got that and this is why. The conversation’s over, and I’m starting to leave, and he grabs me by my shirt and pushes me back in my office and I said ‘dude, get your f*cking hands off me.’ I could see in this guy’s face and in his eyes and the way he’s acting who this guy really f*cking is.”
And as if that wasn’t enough, White says that Ngannou also got physical with the UFC’s Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell as well.
“My guy Hunter [Campbell], they were talking about something, it might have even been that same thing [about the bonus],” White recalled. “And when Hunter started to walk away, Francis grabbed him by the f*cking back of his collar and f*cking pulled him back and said ‘we’re not done talking yet.’ This guy’s not a good f*cking guy. He’s a bad guy.”
Watch White’s full ‘Flagrant’ interview below.
