Sean O’Malley reacts after Dana White avoids presenting Francis Ngannou with the heavyweight belt at UFC 270
On his latest podcast on the “Timbo Sugarshow”, Sean O’Malley spoke to the controversy playing out regarding Dana White not presenting Francis Ngannou with the heavyweight belt at UFC 270:
“Dana White didn’t even put the belt around him apparently. I went to bed. What do you think about it? I mean, dude, he’s the boss. He’s the man. You’re going to talk sh*t about the whole company, and I get it. I’m just saying. I bet (Francis Ngannou) honestly didn’t even give a f*ck though.”
Francis Ngannou (17-3 MMA) triumphed over Ciryl Gane (10-1 MMA) at UFC 270 this past weekend in Anaheim, California. By unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) he retained his heavyweight belt, making it six wins in a row for Ngannou.
(via Cooper Neil/Zuffa LLC)
For Ciryl Gane, this was his first defeat in the UFC.
After securing the win, it was Mick Maynard, UFC VP of talent relations, who handed ‘The Predator’ his belt. This left many wondering where was Dana White, UFC President, and why was he not presenting the title belt to the heavyweight champion.
White normally enters the Octagon and presents the belt to the winners of championship fights. Following the co-main flyweight event at UFC 270 he entered the cage after the Deiveson Figueiredo win over Brandon Moreno and presented the belt to ‘Deus da Guerra’.
While Dana White not only didn’t present the belt to Ngannou, he was a no-show at the post fight press conference as well.
It is well known that Ngannou and the UFC have been going back-and-forth in contract negotiations with no end in site. Ngannou has been quite vocal in his frustrations with his current employer.
Ngannou when asked about White’s quick departure from the cage, at his post-fight press conference commented:
“I don’t know. You have to ask him.”
Although Dana White has yet to comment on his absence following Ngannous’ victory this past weekend, he did speak before UFC 270 on the relationship between the two:
“I’ve been in contract drama for 20 years with people. It’s part of the business. I honestly don’t know where we’ll end up after Saturday,” White said, adding: “We’ll see how the fight goes, we’ll see what happens and I’m sure we’ll figure it out one way or another.”
“Francis and I have had our moments over the last several years. I bumped into him at dinner a few weeks ago and we had a good conversation. It was funny because we needed to talk. We needed to see each other and the universe made it happen.”
“We’ll see how these things play out. I don’t blame Francis as much as I blame the not so very smart people that surround him.”
Topics:
Dana White Francis Ngannou Sean O'Malley UFC UFC 270
