UFC CEO Dana White praises Francis Ngannou following ten-round fight with Tyson Fury
The CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Dana White, recently praised former UFC superstar Francis Ngannou, pointing out that the Cameroonian’s accomplishment of fighting ten rounds with Tyson Fury was ‘crazy’.
It was commonly said before Francis Ngannou and Tyson Fury met in ‘the Battle of the Baddest’ that Ngannou was not trained to fight for ten rounds, because of his coming from the UFC where fewer rounds were used.
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn even predicted that Francis Ngannou was going to be won before the sixth round by boxing’s finest, Tyson Fury. Ngannou shocked spectators when he knocked Fury down in the third round and fought like a normal boxer all through the ten rounds.
Dana White said on Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast Triggered, ‘I didn’t see the fight, but the fact that he went 10 rounds with Tyson Fury is crazy. He just went 10 rounds with Tyson Fury. Conor (McGregor) made it 9 or 10 with Floyd.
‘Anthony Pettis just beat Roy Jones Jr. – I know Roy is friggin’ 60 years old or whatever. But I don’t know what the hell is going on. It’s crazy. I didn’t see the fight, but the fact that he went 10 rounds is unbelievable.’
When Trump said something about fighters leaving the UFC after Ngannou’s inspiring victory, the middle-aged man replied, ‘I don’t care. Listen, these guys—at some point, everybody is going to move on. Everybody has to do what’s right for them and make money for their families, so whatever they’ve got to do, they’ve got to do.’
Francis Ngannou separated from the UFC and joined the Professional Fighter’s League recently due to the company’s style, which he found dissatisfactory.
Dana White acts like he dislikes the boxing business.
‘You can’t build a business off it [boxing],’ said White. ‘The key to having something is building a business. When you talk about the NFL, the NBA, MLB, they took football, basketball and baseball and created a business out of it. That’s what we did with fighting, and it just can’t be done with boxing. It’s too crazy.’