Francis Ngannou opens up on 'weird' PFL split, Jake Paul feud and Jon Jones' UFC troubles: 'I know the tactic'

Francis Ngannou continues to find greener pastures in his post-UFC fight career. Just days before Ngannou's MMA return was announced against Philipe Lins for the May 16 MVP event on Netflix , news broke that the former UFC heavyweight champion had parted ways with PFL despite having one fight remaining on his deal. In May 2023, the Cameroonian had made waves as one of the biggest MMA free agency acquisitions of this decade — not only for his status atop the heavyweight division, but also because of the unrestricted seven-figure deal he secured.

But ultimately Ngannou, 39, fought only once for PFL — defeating Renan Ferreira by first-round TKO in October 2024 — and contributed behind the scenes to the promotion's launch of its PFL Africa series. Speaking on Tuesday's edition of "The Ariel Helwani Show, " Ngannou said he hoped to fight out the final bout of his PFL deal and had been consistently told by the organization that a matchup was being worked out — only to be released well before his departure was actually announced. "We parted ways in January," Ngannou told Uncrowned.

"I wanted to also give them a better way to come up with something, because that was their decision to part ways. Not mine. But I was a little surprised when they [made the announcement].

They should have at least told me since I was holding onto this. " Although Ngannou had been keeping details of his promotional release under wraps to the public, he admitted he'd already negotiated his upcoming MMA return with MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian. "I found it a little weird that [PFL] didn't come back to me to be like, 'OK, now we're going to announce it.