Dana White reveals why he didn’t place the belt on Francis Ngannou at UFC 270
It’s been radio silence from UFC president Dana White since Francis Ngannou defended his title at UFC 270.
But on Wednesday night White took part in a fan Q&A and spoke briefly about Ngannou.
“I think the heavyweight main event was a shocker,” White said. “I don’t think anybody expected to see Francis coming to wrestle.”
He continued on to express his feelings about the game plan to wrestle Ciryl Gane.
“During the fight, I was very surprised,” White said. “After the fight, I mean, it was genius. It was genius for him to work on his wrestling. I guarantee you, I don’t know this for a fact, But I would guarantee you that Ciryl Gane did almost no wrestling preparing for that fight. So to come in and implement the game plan that he had, it was brilliant.”
Leading up to the fight Ngannou accused the UFC of disrespecting him, not paying him fairly and he voiced his desire to take a boxing fight. Following Ngannou’s win, White was missing from the post-fight presser and didn’t strap the belt on Ngannou.
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White jumped ahead of the questions he assumed would be coming and explained why he didn’t put the belt on Ngannou, and it’s not what the fans were implying.
“Nobody asked, but they are dying to ask it is that I wasn’t out there for the main event,” White said. “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. But you know, for anybody thinking I was showing any type of disrespect toward Francis. I saw Francis all week. You idiots. I shook his hand. I said hi to him. You know, I was out there for the for the staredown, the whole thing. So for anybody to think that there was some type of disrespect, shown toward Francis … I wasn’t out there for Michael Bisping, Rockhold fight either because I was dealing with some stuff. And I sprinted from the back I didn’t even have my jacket on I only on my shirt on to go out there and put the belt on Bisping but I couldn’t make it out there to put the belt on Francis.”