Francis Ngannou and UFC CEO Dana White played the blame game over the past week as they disagreed about why a fight between Ngannou and Jon Jones never happened.
White claimed it was Ngannou who prevented the matchup from taking place, while the former UFC heavyweight champion stated that the promotion told him it was Jones who didn’t want the fight when Ngannou was attempting to negotiate a new deal to stay with the organization. In the end, the two sides never came to an agreement, and now Ngannou is preparing for his PFL debut in October against Renan Ferreira, while Jones is expected to fight Stipe Miocic on Nov. 16 at UFC 309.
Hypothetically, nothing is stopping UFC and PFL from working together so Ngannou could potentially face Jones or even interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall. But UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture knows from painful personal experience that it’s highly unlikely UFC would ever co-promote with anybody else to make a fight happen.
“I know the UFC’s got too big [of] an ego to let that happen,” Couture told MMA Fighting. “That’s why the Fedor [Emelianenko] fight never happened [for me]. Because M-1 wanted to do a co-promotion and the UFC’s never going to let that happen.”
Couture famously attempted to set up a fight against Fedor Emelianenko back in 2007, which eventually led to a lawsuit and a court battle between the former two-division champion and the UFC.
The legal war ended with Couture reaching an agreement to return to UFC because time was running out on his career and he was already competing in his mid-40s.
With UFC remaining the biggest MMA promotion in the sport by a wide margin, there’s no need for it to co-promote with anybody else and risk somebody like Ngannou defeating a current champion on the roster. Couture wishes that wasn’t the case, but it’s also why he’s skeptical that Ngannou or anybody else from PFL will ever get a chance to test themselves against the UFC’s elite.
“I don’t see the champ in the UFC ever getting a shot at fighting the champ from PFL or any other organization for that matter, and that’s unfortunate,” Couture said. “That’s a shame that the fans are never going to get to see those type of matchups. That’s one of the flaws and issues in our sport right now.”
As unlikely as it seems that UFC willl ever decide differently, Couture admits that perhaps the new owners at TKO Group Holdings may change their minds one day in the future.
Another factor that Couture knows can’t be ignored is the obscene amount of money being flooded into combat sports from the Saudi Arabia General Entertainment Authority, which is headed up by Turki Al-Sheikh.
During UFC’s first-ever show in Saudi Arabia, Al-Sheikh mentioned publicly that he would like to see fights like Ngannou vs. Jones happen in the future. When asked about the possibility later that night, White stated, “We’ll see what the future holds,” and praised Al-Sheikh as a business partner.
“At the end of the day, I think Ari [Emanuel] is the one calling the shots,” Couture said of the TKO CEO. “He’s the one that bought the company from Zuffa. It’s his business. He has shareholders and people he has to answer to, and needs to do what’s best for the bottom line for that company [TKO Group Holdings], that includes WWE and UFC and everything that’s going on there.
“Certainly, the [Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund] and what the Saudis are holding and what they’re doing with LIV Golf, and all the other things that they’re doing to build culture and create opportunity for their citizens and their athletes in their country, that [fight] could very well happen because that kind of money can make a lot of things happen.”
If UFC remains unwilling to bend on an Ngannou vs. Jones fight, Couture would still like to see his old heavyweight title get unified in a matchup that still hasn’t been made yet.
“Aspinall and Jon Jones would be an amazing fight,” Couture said. “They need to put it on the line and settle that and unify those titles and fight. Make it happen.”
As far as Ngannou goes, Couture recognizes his nearly three-year long absence from MMA has probably cost him a spot as the No. 1 ranked heavyweight in the sport.
Couture believes Ngannou has a huge opportunity to remind the world about his place among the best of the best in the heavyweight division when he returns in October.
“This is a huge fight for Francis for a whole bunch of reasons,” Couture said. “Getting back into that cage, shoring up that wrestling, sharpening those tools, and MMA is a different engagement than boxing is. Anybody that can’t see that now is missing the point. He’s putting it on the line. He’s willing to step up there and do that. I don’t think he’s scared of anybody, so yeah, I think all those things come into play.
“UFC is still the biggest promotion in this sport. That’s why everybody is talking about those two heavyweights instead of the PFL right now or that pay-per-view that’s coming up in the PFL in October. We still have ground to cover. We’re headed in the right direction.”
