Ngannou vacates UFC title

Cameroonian Francis Ngannou vacated the UFC heavyweight world title. Francis terminated his contract with the fight company, refused to further defend the belt and became a free agent.

"We have been negotiating with Ngannou for more than two years. We offered Francis a deal that would have made him the highest-paid heavyweight in the history of the company, but he turned it down," said UFC President Dana White.

"Francis doesn't want to take too many risks right now. He feels he can fight weaker opponents and make more money, so we'll let him do that and release him from our contract. He can go wherever he wants and do whatever he wants."

Ngannou was scheduled to appear at UFC 285 in Las Vegas on March 4. Now the central event of the event will be a match between John Jones and Cyril Gunn.

Earlier, Francis Ngannou said that he is ready to fight with boxing champion Tyson Fury. The Cameroonian agrees to wait for Fury to settle his affairs in boxing.

Promoter Bob Arum believes that the Fury-Ngannou fight has the potential to bring in more money than the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight in 2017, which saw a record number of pay-per-view PPV sales of 4.2 million.

Last year, Ngannou defeated Cyril Gana at UFC 270 to defend the world heavyweight title. The Cameroonian won the championship belt in March 2021 by knocking out Stipe Miocic in the second round.