The first rule of UFC Fight Club: don’t
mention Francis Ngannou’s name…Here’s a look at the clip from the UFC 305 Countdown episode versus
what Adesanya actually said at the UFC 305 Pre-Sale Press
Conference.It’s no surprise, but the UFC’s attempt to erase Ngannou from its…
pic.twitter.com/PZpA7UAtSe
— AFeldmanMMA (@afeldMMA)
August 13, 2024
Former
Ultimate Fighting Championship champ Israel
Adesanya is not pleased by how his company is handling Francis
Ngannou’s legacy.
Du Plessis vs. Adesanya Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order
Now!
At
UFC 305 media day on Wednesday, Adesanya spoke up on the UFC
seemingly erasing mentions of Ngannou on its broadcasts and
postings. This was partially in response to AFeldmanMMA,
who posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, a side-by-side video
comparison on Tuesday, showing that the promotion had edited out
Adesanya invoking the name of Ngannou when talking about legacy for
African fighters. During the UFC Countdown episode that featured
his comments, while Adesanya had previously called the trio of
African champions of himself, Kamaru
Usman and Ngannou the “three kings,” that along with Ngannou’s
name was clipped out.
“You can never erase Francis’ history from the UFC, I’ll say that,”
Adesanya said while staring directly at the UFC’s camera lens.
“It’s just part of history, we need to fix this. I don’t like
that…the fact that we’re trying to just cut out a really important
part of history. It’s silly. It’s really silly. But we’ll fix
that…that’s for later on, we’ll fix that.”
This was not the first time the organization had intentionally or
inadvertently removed Ngannou from its history, a current roster
member of competitor Professional Fighters League. Ahead of Tafon
Nchukwi’s final UFC outing in 2023, the broadcast overlay wrote
that he was the “Only Cameroonian fighter in UFC history.” This was
incorrect, as Ngannou as well as Rameau
Thierry Sokoudjou were both born in the nation of Cameroon and
fought under the UFC banner.
“I respect Francis so much, he’s an [integral] part of what we’ve
done in the UFC,” Adesanya stated at media day. “Right now, I know
there’s competition between other promotions and the UFC, and
battles, but you can never erase history because the streets, the
internet will always remember. No matter what. And I think they’ll
fix this eventually, but it’s just a lot of chest-puffing. But
hopefully, they’ll…the UFC is smart people, they’ll understand and
they’ll rectify this eventually.”
This error was not always displayed, as during Nchukwi’s 2022
walkout before facing Carlos
Ulberg, the broadcast wrote that Nchukwi was “one of three UFC
fighters born in Cameroon.” At that time, Ngannou had not
surrendered his heavyweight throne and left after failed contract
negotiations. Since that bout, Ngannou departed to join the PFL
roster while crossing over twice to boxing, where he squared off
against Tyson Fury
and Anthony
Joshua in spirited, unsuccessful efforts. His next MMA
fight—the first since 2022—will take place in October against
Renan
Ferreira.
“You can’t erase Francis’ legacy in the UFC, it’s part of what
we’ve done, it’s forever in history, in stone,” the Nigerian-born
ex-champ reiterated. “Trying to white-wash it or just not talk
about it is silly. And I know he’s fighting for the PFL right now,
but it’s still history. You can’t just turn a blind eye to it. So
again, I’m sure they’ll fix it eventually, this is how business
goes with the UFC.”