Dana White's comments shortly after Francis Ngannou left the UFC have re-emerged - they couldn't have been more incorrect.
Ngannou walked away from the UFC as the reigning heavyweight champion in January 2023 and signed a deal with rival promotion PFL a few months later.
The Cameroon fighter was provided equity in the company and the opportunity to pursue a career in boxing.
He made his boxing debut last October in a losing effort to reigning WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
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It was announced on Friday that Ngannou's next fight will be against Anthony Joshua, likely on March 8.
'The Predator' is enjoying himself outside the UFC bubble and making a mockery of White's initial analysis.
He said there was no interest in seeing Ngannou box as there was in Conor McGregor when he took on Floyd Mayweather in 2017.
"PFL is going to pay this guy to train for a boxing match that may not even happen and that they might not even be involved in," the UFC head honcho vented.
"How does that make any sense? It doesn't make sense to me. Anthony Joshua called it a gimmick fight this week.
"When asked about that fight, he's like, 'I'm focused on fighting the best guys in the world. I'm not interested in a gimmick fight right now.'
"And that's one of the big problems with boxing right now, is it's all about these gimmicky type fights, and that's just not what I do here. It's not what I do."
White also added that Ngannou did not want to challenge himself in fights.
He continued: "Francis wants to take zero risks, doesn't want to take any chances, and he obviously didn't want to take a chance with Jon Jones — and after we saw what happened with Ciryl Gane, I don't blame him.
"I think the outcome would've been exactly the same, and I'm sure most of you do and I'm sure Francis does too."
Ngannou's first opponent in the cage is yet to be determined.
Topics: Dana White, Francis Ngannou, UFC, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua
Daniel Marland