Francis Ngannou has made peace with the next step in his career, whether that’s in the UFC or elsewhere.
In other words, the UFC heavyweight champion won’t bend on his demands should he sign a new UFC contract. As he said Monday on The MMA Hour, he estimates he’s already left a lot of money on the table to get to this point.
“You can be free and fight for the UFC,” Ngannou said. “I just want to be free. We are supposedly independent contractors. [An] independent contractor is technically a free person. That’s the reason why they need some adjustments in that contract. That’s what I’ve been fighting for.”
The exact shape of Ngannou’s freedom remains somewhat of an open question, and one that is unprecedented in the promotion’s history. The 35-year-old Cameroon native is still the heavyweight champion after a gutsy decision win over Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 and believes he has fulfilled his contract to the UFC. He is willing to sign another one, but only if the promotion makes concessions on some of its longstanding business practices (even as the promotion appears to have made them less restrictive amid a long-running anti-trust case with former UFC fighters).
“The term of the contract, everything that they put into, they hold you in captivity,” Ngannou said. “You can’t do anything. You have no rights. The contract is one-sided, although you still don’t have nothing. You don’t even have health insurance, even while you’re putting your body on the line to provide to put on the show.
“You’re risking everything. There’s a lot of things. We have no insurance. Nothing. No guarantee, which I understand as an independent contractor, but treat me as such, if I am. Whether I’m going to be an employee or an independent contractor, make it very clear in the contract. It’s very mixed up.”
0 Comments