Francis Ngannou was unfazed by Dana White not presenting the UFC heavyweight title to him after his win over Ciryl Gane in January.
There had been a lot of very public disagreements between Ngannou and the promotion ahead of UFC 270, where he was fighting out his controversial six-figure contract. Just two months prior, boxing heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder had been paid tens of millions for their trilogy bout, while Ngannou and Gane's collective purses barely scratched seven-figures.
But no agreement could be reached between the two parties, with White slamming Ngannou's manager Marquel Martin publicly. And just hours before the event, Ngannou was hit with a legal letter for allegedly engaging in contract talks with Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions.
It all came to a head when Ngannou upset the odds and ran out a decision victor over Gane, maintaining his status as heavyweight champion without signing a new deal. White wasn't present for his belt presentation, citing issues behind the scenes unrelated to Ngannou.
“Personally, I didn’t care," Ngannou said of the belt presentation during an appearance on the PBD Podcast. "I made my statement that night. I was happy. And I don’t know if that’s true or not.
"I don’t care. What I do know is like, I made my statement. It wasn’t about the belt, it wasn’t about Dana wrapping the belt around me, or the press conference, or anybody."
White also missed the post-fight press conference, once again insisting that the issues backstage were to blame, although that theory has been disputed. Instead, matchmaker Mick Maynard gave Ngannou the belt, which he says was a good compromise.
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"By the way, Mick Maynard, who for me is a great guy, wrapped the belt around my waist," Ngannou continued. "And that wouldn’t be a problem for me. Maybe Dana had a situation going on. I have no problem with Mick wrapping the belt around my waist. I’m very cool. I’m very happy with Mick. Doesn’t mean things was great.”
The heavyweight champion is now recovering from surgery, and is expected to allow the clock to run out on his UFC contract at the end of the year. At that point, he will be a free agent, having never lost the top title in MMA.
White has insisted that the feud between Ngannou and the UFC is overblown, claiming that "stuff going on backstage" caused him to leave the arena after Brandon Moreno and Deiveson Figueiredo's co-main event bout for the flyweight title.
He told ESPN : "I actually walked out of the arena right after the co-main event because there was stuff going on backstage that I was dealing with.
"For anybody who thinks that I was showing some sort of disrespect towards Francis, I saw Francis all week, you idiots. I shook his hand, said hi to him, I was out there for the staredowns, the whole thing."
