Francis Ngannou bet on himself and won. But early on, things did not look good for the Predator competing in the UFC.
Ngannou turned down a contract extension offer from the UFC in 2021. At that time, he was the promotion’s heavyweight champion and had one fight left in his contract. But instead of taking the UFC’s offer, he wanted to test the free agency market and declined a new contract.
Initially, that did not look like the right gamble.
“You were talking earlier about the contract that I turned down,” Ngannou said during his recent appearance on the Pound 4 Pound podcast with Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo.
“You knew a lot about the stuff that I turned down from the UFC negotiation with my last fight in the UFC. I took $600,000 for my last fight in the UFC as opposed to $5 million that they were offering for the same fight. And I was broke. At the time I owed Usman $200,000. I was broke. It’s true!”
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Ngannou went on to defeat Cyril Gane at UFC 270 to retain the UFC heavyweight championship. The UFC tried to keep Ngannou by offering him $8 million to fight Jon Jones but he rejected that offer too. The Predator ended up signing with the Professional Fighters League (PFL), joining its PPV Super Fight Division. That allowed him to pursue boxing bouts outside the MMA cage. That’s when he struck gold.
The former UFC heavyweight champion booked a boxing bout against lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Ngannou dropped Fury in the third round and took the Gypsy King to the scorecards.
While Fury ended up winning via split decision, Ngannou’s stock soared and that earned him another high-profile boxing match against former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
AJ demolished Ngannou last Friday via second-round knockout. But despite the loss, Ngannou took home a $20 million purse from that bout. Add that to the reported $10 million he made against Fury, the Predator has made more money in two boxing bouts than he ever did in his entire MMA career.
According to reports, Ngannou made a total of $2.7 million in a total of 20 mixed martial arts bouts. This included 14 bouts inside the UFC Octagon. But what he earned from November 2013 to January 2022 is but a fraction of what boxing has paid him during a six-month span. Talk about betting on oneself and winning, Francis Ngannou has done that and more.