Ngannou fires back at Dana White: 'You spent years building an escape plan to keep me trapped'

Francis Ngannou publicly challenged UFC CEO Dana White on Friday, responding to White’s latest personal attack with a social media post accusing the promotion of spending years and significant legal resources trying to prevent his departure.

The exchange reignites a feud that has simmered since Ngannou left the UFC as heavyweight champion in 2023 after fighting out his contract and failing to agree terms on a renewal. White this week described Ngannou as “a bad guy” and said he had no interest in doing business with him again.

Ngannou’s response was pointed and direct: “Saying the guy that I spent over three years and a lot of money in law firms building an escape plan to get away from, meanwhile he was doing everything in his power to ensure I was never free. You have to take that loss; it is irreversible.”

White has previously insisted the UFC made every effort to keep Ngannou, claiming the promotion offered him a record-breaking deal. “We offered Francis a deal that would have made him the highest paid heavyweight in the history of the company — more than Brock Lesnar, more than anybody — and he turned the deal down,” White said at the time. “If you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be here.”

Since leaving the UFC, Ngannou’s career has taken a winding path. He tested himself in boxing, nearly upsetting Tyson Fury in his debut before being knocked out by Anthony Joshua in 2024. He then returned to MMA under the PFL banner, stopping Renan Ferreira before most recently knocking out Philipe Lins at the MVP: Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano card in May 2025.

With both men showing little sign of letting the dispute rest, the war of words between one of MMA’s most dominant former champions and its most powerful executive shows no sign of a quiet resolution.