Ariel Helwani Reacts to Francis Ngannou's UFC Departure, Dana White's Claims | The MMA Hour 

This is the kind of realities needed to keep this conversation in perspective. He’s also suffered adversity (both in and outside of the cage) and persevered to success. Hats off to him.

Would have fought DC if given the chance

Cane was completely passed his prime when they fought a shell of his former self. He's 1-1 against stipe, he lost to derrick Lewis. And he was offered more money than Lesnar (Lesnar had over 10x the PPV buys that Ngannau had.) Lesnar's weakest PPV buy was 25k short of being Ngannaus total PPV buys. He's gonna get knocked out by anyone in the top 10 in heavyweight boxing and fade into irrelevance

​@@zlMonsterxdo you not see how sad that is having to type a whole ass paragraph trying to discredit a man's accomplishments?

None of them are Jon jones let’s be honest

Yeah man. Hopefully he makes some $$$ boxing.

MAJOR mistake.

@litecoin satoshi legit, people are talking about a fury fight, since fury is probably fighting Usyk, that’s maybe another year that Ngannou will have to try and stay relevant and might not even get the fight anyway

@@jcbtche didn’t walk away from 10+ million. You don’t know the contract buddy

@@Roberto-nm8sw Says the NOBODY that no one cares what he thinks while living out of his mom's basement!!

Why? None of this has any affect on Dana or the UFC as a business. Look at their bottom line. Biggest they've ever been.

Yea Dana does not think in those ways like at all, he'd laugh out loud reading this

I got news for you- Dana is not adversely impacted by Ariel at all. That's one of the reasons why Ariel keeps getting more agitated

Well Ariel is supposed to be a legit journalist and not a vindictive coward

@@blumpkinexcalibur7523 ariel is one of the biggest names in all of the mma community his words control big narratives for the fans that affect the UFC

He literally fought with bad knees against a great fighter for Dana to say he’s scared is a absolute Joke. I do think he’s making a mistake he goes to boxing gets embarrassed & no one will want to see him box again

He's no more special than any other champion. You fight who the UFC tells you to fight and that is it. No ifs ands or buts

Who’s he even gonna box? In mma, he’s above average, but in boxing? he’s below, to mid tier at best. Wilder? Joshua? Ruiz? He can go to bellator, or ONE. But who has name value there? Such a weird and dumb spot to be in, he could’ve fought Jones, or rematched Gane and he would’ve pulled 3 million at the least. He has a hero story, yes. 100% no one can deny that he went through hell to get to the top, but the people who surround him are spitting poison in his ear, and the idea he can stand with the top heavyweight boxers is misguided and stupid.

The thing i see being looked over the most in fighter pay is PPV buys. Truth be told Francis doesnt sell PPVs like that (i researched the tapology ppv page that has the ppv numbers for boxing and mma). I agree Francis is an amazing talent and im not going to entertain that he doesnt want to fight Jones but i do question the contracts on all three sides. I think without seeing a signed contract people can talk all they want but im from the frame of thinking talk is talk. I can see Dana's views of he wants easier fights for money becuase that is exactly what happens in another organization (look at the difference in competion in PFL and Bellator). I get that he wants to have some boxing matches and feels the UFC is holding him in "Captivity" but from a business perspective if you arent really selliing PPVs for the UFC why would i split that with a boxing promoter if you we arent getting money like that now.

@Ethereal I think he made a huge mistake not taking the jones fight and your exactly right mma boxing and regular boxing is different if I'm not wrong he defended his title once against gane and how long has he been champ I'm actually glad they stripped the title and Ariel only talks about Dana anymore crying everyday about him not getting in trouble get over it

@@JohnnySack16 That's one way to deduce within a framework without taking any other circumstances into consideration. Learning rhetorical conventions and conversational nuance will benefit you greatly.

UFC: “we need someone to be a scumbag to save face” Dana: “hold my beer” Guy holding beer: crumbles under the weight of all the bottles Dana has handed him.

We all know francis would fight Jones in heart beat. But this is guy who was poor and he want a life changing money and to be free, which I agree with him. Otherwise he end up like Spencer Fisher and Chuck Liddell

@@liquidpza agreed

There s a reason wny The UFC is what it is and it surely isnt bc they break the bank on payouts, F rhat. No successful corp or small business is gonna drain their account on their employees, ridiculous. Other promos that arent a fraction of UFC will and probably why they are whwre they are. You see new promos offer stupid ridiculous purses and then are in debt up the A only to go defunct. FN can go hit those up lol.

Did the same thing with Diaz

That's usual Dana.

@Phillip Morales with Nate? Lies. He praised him and said the doors are always open and Nate has publicly stated that he never had issues with Dana. He did slander GSP though

@@thenedsmmachannel8970 You haven't been paying attention if you think nate never had issues with dana lmaoo

@@phillipmorales6625 no he didn’t

More like 1 in a billion. I hope everything works out for him.

I don't care about his fkn morals or whatever, I just WANTED TO SEE THE FIGHT between he and Jones!!

@@exspiravit6920 Damn man, we all did. And still do to be honest. Such a bummer, one of the biggest fights we’ll never see

Have to side with Dana on this one. Ngannou is a snake, look how he abandoned his fight team he started with and walked past them like he didnt even know them. POS

i don’t agree with him he was offered a great cobtract

Bro what ? This was nothing but one sided bias , not good journalism at all , he's still salty at Dana and it shows , he can't hide his bias

He’s not exactly down the middle 😂 what you on about

Your right

@@messagestomylina makes more sense than Dana tho

@@messagestomylina Whatever...? He is more believable than Dana White and UFC. He completely destroyed every claim by Dana White, with FACTS BASED EVIDENCE! If that is not great journalism, I don't know what is? 💯👍💕

ko-artist heavyweights will always be compared to him from now on.

Get him to be in one of your vids! Give a chiropractic adjustment!

Someones tryna to get a promotion at PF changs

He has Dana's number for sure.

@@JimmyKantstandyabitz An hour on his nose alone lol

He’s such a UFC/Dana hater lmfao. It’s becoming so apparent and has been ruining certain segments of the show for the past few weeks

He’s an amazing fighter, but he doesn’t have the crazy star power he thinks he has. Other than a boxing match with Fury (and maybe some other boxing fights), he will not find any big mma fight that are outside the UFC. Again he might not care about that he may just want 1-2 big pay days and ride off.

@@KrikZ32 I never said it was but it’s clear in the negotiation fallouts that Francis is more interested in freedom to fight in boxing super fights like the one with Fury because he believes he will get a major increase in pay. He’s not fighting Fury just to fight for the sake of it, a large motivator for him is getting a big pay day (one that he is not receiving in the UFC)

@@jetttokiwa sponsorship money and freedom to make certain deals with your likeness would make him so much more than they are willing to pay.

@@jetttokiwa he just needs 2-4 boxing fights and him and his next family are set for life

@@KrikZ32 Dana is no saint but I can understand where the UFC is coming from in trying to avoid cross sport fights. They may be independent contractors but if they go and get hurt doing such sports it ruins the marketability of said athlete for their own sport. He tried this with Connor and look where this has gotten him. It’s valid to make a fair argument that Connor would be in a different (possibly better) fighting status than he is now had he not gone for the money fight with Floyd.

He sucks the fighters so they come on his show.

@@aandy2042they don’t know about alpha

@@aandy2042 why you here then 😂

@@aandy2042 bro wtf does beta or any of that idiocy have to do with the right thing? This guy isn’t perfect but I’ll believe him over a pos like Dana white

@@aandy2042 Bro really calling people Betas and Alpha that's so sad

He may be the most inactive HW champ of all time

@@12monkey57 you wanted hom to fight with a knee injury what are you even saying

@@12monkey57 All of them are inactive after a while. That doesn't matter. They gave Gane a paper belt and Francis came back and took that one too

@@JJ-ut3sn but if gane wins he will defend the 3 times a year Jones won't he will defend once a year

@@suhailshaikh8529 I dont know what Sport you guys are watching. In the modern era, there is no champ that defends that much. A title fight. Especially HW is a big deal..on ppv. They only try to do it twice. Izzy is yound and wanted a new deal, thats why he defended so much. Jon used to fight 3 or 4 times a year before he got that belt. They get older and richer and don't need to fight really injured, so they dont..unless they are trying to end a contract. Plus the older you get, the more prone you are to injury. But let you guys tell it, they all of a sudden get scared and lazy. Dont listen to Dana. He's a tool

He is about as smart as a doorknob. No manager. No plan. Doesn't even make a call out for a potential fight in the future. Absolutely fumbled the bag.

@@John-ru4gz you're a doorknob, john.

​@@John-ru4gzDo you still have the same opinion?😂😂

He's not fighting Fury

@@jasonc1996 he absolutely will.

lol, to imagine Dana putting his pride aside for anything is a fun fantasy.

That would be great to see! Perhaps they wouldn't want to do big 1 fight deals cause it might set a new precedent which will get all the other fighters wanting this. Conor is the only one that gets the treatment but he's a phenomenon in the sport as a personality outside as well as inside the ring

L

I'm surprised to see that many people who kept thinking its just about money. you don't need much interviews to see how wise and intelligent he is. it literally always was about more moral reasons

@@ethernetify I hadn't seen a lot of these interviews with Francis until now. Listen to his own words, it's pretty clear it's not just about money here. Tune in tomorrow and see what he has to say.

Of course it's not just about money. Ngannou always said it's about freedom, meaning he wanted to be able to also fight outside the UFC at the same time (Tyson Fury fight, etc). This amidst the everlasting controversy that UFC contracts call fighters "contractors" (to not pay benefits) but locks them into an exclusive contract, which goes against the nature of a contractor. There's been many lawsuits against the UFC for this but the UFC has the power to keep the status quo. Ngannou is simply the current bravest one to fight for this cause.

All you got to do is go back to francis early years. Dana did not like him. Watch dan press conference after francis loses. Than he flipped when francis started knocking mfk out

Francis wore a PFL shirt and overplayed his hand, now hes broke

I don’t like Dana but this is business protocol for them lol

A man not scared to fight overeem and destroy ( and most others !) Hardly scared . Petty Dana

if Dana is petty, what does that make Ariel......oh boi

@@domreyy6025 exactly, Ariel is acting a female with these clips talking about Dana. It would be different if there was substance to his argument, but it’s just trashing to trash.

@@camvalence he is a journalist and can choose to say whatever he wants same as you choose to write whatever you want.

Wooooooh

How is dana a scumbag for getting francis what he wants 😂

@@alypha737 stop d-riding.

Well said Juan!!!!!

Absolutely right!!!

You say that as if you know him. Sometimes stuff doesnt work out in business but now he's a scumbag? Actually, he has held up other fighters (Nate, etc...) but he decided to let Francis go. Seems pretty good to me. Y'all be riding Ariels D like its a carousel I swear

Maybe Dana's not heartless greed maybe it's you whose hating on Dana like you know him well Dana is a business men he would do anything to keep his company alive whether you like it or not

@@mosa4370 Criticizing Dana White for destructive and oppressive financial tactics in running the UFC and hurting fighters is not hating. Fighters have been getting screwed for decades like Ariel reports. The UFC is as corrupt as boxing once was. Ngannou’s challenge to the financial structure will be remembered as will Mark Hunt and others attempts to draw attention to the UFC and its corrupt practices. Ariel is an supporter of all the fighters as it should be. Why would you side with the boss against the workers?

@@oldmanbrown1086he wishes he was a boss too so he idolizes his Daddy Dana

@@grimeythree4294 Dana is the boss So nobody cares what people says they run the company whether you like or not 🤣Soo chill bruhh

😂 awesome 👍

So he shows endless proof with the receipts and this is your take? Hilarious

I think he's a great fit and it would be insane if he beat Tyson Fury then came back for Jon Jones to prove he really is "the baddest man on earth". However, the odds of that all lining up are very low, and unfortunately him being the champ in any other organization wouldn't mean much. I don't think any non-fan could name a heavyweight champ outside of the Ufc outside of Tyson Fury. I know I couldn't tell you who's winning in Bellator or whatever. Hopefully Francis makes some good money, but there just won't be eyes on his fights like before and it's hard to have a post-fight career when you're not starting off with a huge audience.

@@iSOBigD yeah hes not going to get anywhere near the amount of money he got with the UFC that's just the truth sadly. Him vs Fury is basically Fury vs a worse Deontay Wilder. He should've stayed in the UFC for the sake of his career, but as long as he's happy with whatever he's doing I dont mind that man has been thru it all

They did offer him what he deserved. He turned it down because he wanted to box. Don’t blame the UFC whatsoever for wanting a champ interested in mma not boxing. Really easy to understand tbh

Sounds pretty selfish to me

@@ronaldbbx631 exactly I don’t understand how people can take anything Ariel says that has to do with Dana seriously

Yeah Dana is so mad that he cant exploit his inactive HW Champ that sells 200k PPVs at best lmfao

@@imma5761 he is mad ngannou vs Jones is way bigger than than ciryl vs Jones

@@imma5761 Jones vs ngannou would have done close to a mil.

Yes, just ask Nate Diaz, who they held hostage for years. Even Francis too at a lesser degree

Fury would get ktfo, Francis ftw

@@lifeisstr4nge Both of you couldnt be more wrong

@@TheDuke4100 you are weirdo fury would literally outbox that gorilla

Bruh you guys really have no idea the difference of hand speed and head movement in boxing compared to mma. The best boxer in mma would get dominated by any top ten boxer in their divisions

@@lifeisstr4nge bruh Francis doesn’t last 5 rounds against fury lmao he doesn’t last 4 rounds with wilder.

Lol you don't say such things to someone like Ariel, whose entire ability to support himself and his family while working in this field has been about nothing but clinging to Dana so he can gossip like a bitter teenage ex-girlfriend in a 40-year old man's body..

@@domreyy6025Ariel makes good points but I see what you mean.

@@domreyy6025 ok npc, keep spamming the same commment over and over again, it might get you somewhere lol

Hmmm..highest paid ever..he can say he would fight Godzilla all day. Doesnt mean he will.

@@Mike-qz4by he asked for him for 2 years. Jones literally declined a 10 mil offer to fight Ngannou. Ngannou fought through injuries and through his contract but he’s supposed to wait infinitely for Jones who hasn’t fought in 3 years?

Lol you don't say such things to someone like Ariel, whose entire ability to support himself and his family while working in this field has been about nothing but clinging to Dana so he can gossip like a bitter teenage ex-girlfriend in a 40-year old man's body..

@@domreyy6025 lol npc

??? Jon Jones agreed to fight Francis after he beat Cyril.

Timing makes it look like that, but gotta remember Jon announced HW move saying hed be ready in a year or so to add the weight correctly. That paired with Francis tearing his knee up vs Cryl so couldn’t do Jon vs either of them. Needed Francis healthy or cryl to get a win or 2. & Stipe who it was planned to be then winner vs Francis but Stipe declined due to injuries. Just fell how it fell. Stipe still hurt not ready until Summer. Francis didn’t resign to line up spring. So it was either risk ciryl v Blaydes & sit Jon until Summer with Stipe All while waiting for Francis. Can only wait so long with the most hype anticipated HW Jon Jones on the pine Cyrl sitting

Its been know for months he was fighting in March. It was going to be Francis and he wasn't ready it was going to be Blaydes. Cyril was in the mix too. Now Francis bailed so it Jones and Gane.

Even then it wasn’t signed until they accidentally leaked it

Plus this got leaked did you listen to Dana's post fight interview he starts it out saying this was leaked by T mobile early by mistake

Lol 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

His decision is all about the $$ lol

Gonna be a common theme in 2023. PFL is getting big.. Bellator events are becoming top class cards with depth. ONEFC takes away the entire Asian market as their cards always include kickboxing or grappling.

Let him walk away? It’s a bushiness. It’s all about red and black numbers sorry.

@@kyledavis7944right bellator is no good and will never see the hype ufc does ONE is the 2nd best mma promotion but the best in martial arts imo with the kickboxing and Muay Thai fighters they have the best strikers in the world imo except Poatan

I don't think it has any other option. If a fighter doesn't fight for 2 years and is holding a division. It's best for both parties. Francis will have a great future. And the heavyweight will have some action with the belt.

ONE is strong but they lack bigger weight class competitive roster. They have the best strikers in lighter weight classes. They also have kickboxing, muay thai and mma fights, way more entertaining than leg thumping wrestlers hugging in the UFC

Yea ariel has the low T crowd in a bunch

The UFC won with this deal. They can actually have an active heavyweight champion

Dana saying Francis is scared is beyond stupid. He might have the biggest balls of any fighter, and dropping the UFC is another proof of that.

@@12monkey57 I hope you are not referring to Jones who has not fought in this decade. He has not fought since 2019. Did not leave with an injury. On the other hand Ngannou had reconstructive knee surgery less than a year ago. Ngannou Fought his last fight with this injury. Ngannou won his freedom.

Francis got a big head from certain people getting his ear. He was asking for things that were unheard of and wouldn't be reasonable. They called his bluff, and now he is gone. That was a career ending move. Who the hell wants to see him box or fight in a lesser organization? Not me.

@@josephderenzis8732 This could be breaking news! No one else knows what his requests were for sure. Please tell us what things he was asking for that were unreasonable. The assumption is he wanted a carve out to box to fulfill his life long dream (like Conor had) and to have a limited time or number of fights before he could retire or renegotiate. Neither of which does the UFC allow. They have a clause in all fighter contracts to automatically extend their contract if they win and a clause to match within a year if someone else offers a greater amount. essentially a slave clause.

They did the same with mighty mouse. They act like he isn't the best bantomweight in the world and an all time p4p goat.

@Danny 💯

Bruh stop lmao. Bellator is hands the worst. People constantly say they don't even know Bellator is having events till the highlights are posted on social media

they really need to hire a promotor who promotes! i think chael could do that job well.

@@thenedsmmachannel8970 "people constantly say" - i have yet to see 1 person saying that; maybe those same "people" refer to mma as UFC because thats all they know? if so, that observation is pointless

@Aqualax dude literally on any social media post.... like I said say they didn't even know Usman Nurmy was fighting for gold or when Corey Anderson lost the rematch. Same with people ripping Bellator and Rizin for having it be a tape delay on Showtime, the only app to watch(legally) Bellator. Live in denial dude but it's the fact and people rip Bellator all the time for it. Same with PFL when they asked for $50 for their first PPV. Social media response is a sure tell on how the casuals view the sport and the casuals matter cause thats why Conor can still sell 1.8 million PPVs who is completely shot and Francis Ngannou in his prime against an interm champ with a co main of a trilogy bout with Figgy vs Moreno can't even break 250K buys... dont even try to argue back bro cause it's just denial on your end

@@thenedsmmachannel8970 so your entire point boils down to "trust me bro" because who the hell wouldnt know about usman nurmagomedov fighting for gold or corey anderson having a rematch? id argue the 2nd example is even worse considering how the 1st fight ended, it wouldnt take a genius to figure out there was gonna be a rematch. yeah, but people not knowing about tape delays is FAR different from people not knowing about events happening in the first place, which is something you claimed at first. and why would people complain about tape delays if they hadnt known about the event taking place at all, which is something that "constantly happens" according to you? so make a decision already, does it happen constantly or not? "live in denial dude but its the fact" no its not a fact at all and you may wanna take your own advice. oh so now you wanna talk about pfl; i thought your point was "people not knowing bellator events are happening" or something along those lines, no? okay, so if there is such a disparity between conor and everyone else, do people not know about those events happening until highlights are posted or could it possibly be due to people knowing, but not really caring as much? its really simple dude - you dont have to make these moronic points about people literally not knowing about events happening; instead you could have said people dont really care about certain fighters as much as they do about others (especially casuals). ask yourself whats more likely between the 2 in this day and age.

Yes. That would have been one VERY UPSET EGO. 😡

He was the champ jon isn’t it the champ

I bet it’s 8 fight contract for probably 10 millions. Dana white strike again lol

typically stipe fanboys

No one's against Francis but if he doesn't want to sign the contract it's over nothing we can do about it move on life goes on. I hate to tell everybody.

@@rapslove9873 the comments here seem mostly fine but there's a lot of threads that don't have the same opinion as you

No one is forcing fighters to sign contracts every fighter going into the ufc knows all this and they still sign a contract. You can’t have freedom to box when you only sell 360,000 ppv buys. Also no other sport has freedom in they’re contracts.

If he wanted Jones, he could have had Jones.

@@samspi9461if he wanted to take what he found to be a less than ideal deal then sure but he didn’t. He wanted what he’s worth, when he gets his 100 mill payday what will you Dana bootlickers have to say?

@@grimeythree4294 Who determines his worth? Who else would pay him more to fight Jones? No one. So he wanted MORE than he's worth to fight Jones which means he didn't want the fight. It's cool, I don't blame him but lets not pretend like Francis didn't make a business decision here too (just like the UFC).

@@samspi9461 he determines his worth and he wanted more than he was offered not more than his worth. Just because the ufc attempts to act as a monopoly does not make this fact.

@@grimeythree4294 People don't determine their own worth, it's SUPPLY and DEMAND not just DEMAND. I don't begrudge the guy for choosing easy money over fighting Jones, but I'm not going to believe he was some martyr for not taking the Jones fight.

He built UFC and unfortunately Francis will be forgotten when the belt goes around Jon Jones.

@@alkine3011 it don’t matter. The man is free and has done a lot from where he came from. That’s it

No you won’t

@@greenlenny3926 I will speak for yourself fool

Metoo

@@greenlenny3926 i will even if that makes me a casual

#mmaguru

Floyd Mayweather said a long time ago Dana SUCKS!

Terrible promoter, but is in charge of the most successful combat sports organization by far lol

"two-faced, petty and vindictive" are you talking about Ariel?

If there’s one thing Dana is not is a bad promoter he’s probably the best promoter of all time.

Dana is just hot garbage, should have left in 2016 like he keeps telling everyone..

Lol scared of what?😂😂 He’s been knocking people out cold…He wants something..and he is willing to do whatever it takes to get it…to me that is FEARLESS! Willing to do what others are scared to do…

You think Nganou is scared?

You don't even know how wrong you are

@@paperboyjohn I think OP is being sarcastic

Dont you mean First mean Randy Couture then Dan hendereson, then Tito, then Gegard Mousassi, then there was eddie Alvarez, the list goes on bro.

i wasn't sure about that either. did he mean it literally?

Gyril has a clause with the amount of money if he fight Jon Jones. Fernand Lopez (the coach) told it in the show of the 08 Sept 2022 "Fernand Lopez: Jon Jones Is ‘No. 1 Danger’ for Ciryl Gane - MMA Fighting"

I think it's something to do with more pay for this fight. More then what his contract says. So more money for fighting jones

well it is a business

it's a 2 way street, Francis has also benefitted tremendously from being in the ufc.

lmao he got paid millions to fight in a cage.

Brings tears to your eyes? LOL whack

What a soy man, Francis made the company absolutely no money and barely sold 200k ppvs. And Francis wants to act like he’s a big star when no one including u wants to pay for his ppvs

So you are crying like a baby just because you can't see two dudes fight that you want to see.... People have gotten really soft