Name: JRE MMA Show #146 with Francis Ngannou
Uploaded: 2023-09-22T00:00:00.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'JRE MMA Show #146 with Francis Ngannou' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-09-22. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'JRE MMA Show #146 with Francis Ngannou' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-09-22. Transcript available.

JRE MMA Show #146 with Francis Ngannou

Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out.
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.
What's up, champ? How are you?
I'm good.
Good to see you.
Good to see you again.
So you have been on a journey, my friend.
A lot of things have happened.
First of all, congratulations on securing this fight.
That is a big deal.
A lot of people doubted it was going to happen.
And you were right.
Thank you. Thank you.
Yes, it was a big deal.
It wasn't easy.
But we finally get it.
You know, I get the help of a lot of people.
And the Saudis were very interesting about this fight.
Yeah, it was one of those fights where you had to take a big gamble
by relinquishing your UFC crown.
I didn't relinquish anything.
You didn't relinquish it.
Yeah.
Fill me in there. Tell me what happened.
Well, we didn't come to an agreement.
You didn't come to an agreement.
Yeah.
So you decided, I'm not signing with the UFC.
You're a free agent.
Yes.
And then, did negotiations then start for the Tyson Fury fight?
How did it start?
You know, it's been like four years since Tyson Fury and I,
we've been going back and forth on social media.
So there was a little bit of a warm-up somewhere there.
And it kind of like take a couple months before we get to a conversation.
You know, it wasn't just easy.
Those boxing promotions.
The boxing world is a little wild.
Yeah, it's a little different.
Yeah, it's completely different.
It's a different animal.
In what way?
Like, explain to us.
The way that they do things, you know,
it's this guy from this promotion fighting against this guy from this promotion
who has a better position, who has what to lose, who is getting what.
And then, how they kind of like put things, I will not say manipulate,
but a little bit like that.
Everybody trying to adjust things on his own benefit.
Look what is good for him, which is good.
But, yeah.
A lot of boxing fights don't get made.
They get talked about for a long time, like Tyson Fury and Usyk.
For a long time was Terrence Crawford and Earl Spence.
They get talked about for a long time.
And they almost get made, and then they don't get made.
And they almost get made, and then they don't get made.
A lot of politics behind.
A lot of promotion that will be behind the fight
just to, you know, push their position.
Everybody is pushing his position.
It's not mostly about the fight.
It's about, like, okay, we control the game.
Do we have enough control here?
Do we control everything?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So was it frustrating for you?
Because I imagine there was a while where you weren't sure
whether or not it was going to be made.
It wasn't frustrating.
You know, before I made my decision when I separated with the UFC,
and I knew, I mean, a long time before, like, I remember even when I fought Syringan,
even before that fight, I was telling myself, and I was even telling this on
interview, like, okay,
if this is the end, then he has to end my way, you know.
So not because I was sure that it was going to happen.
I knew that it could have not happened, right?
But I was to be in peace with my decision.
So that's the thing about it.
And I'm very happy that it happened.
It makes it even better.
But I knew there was a risk that it didn't happen.
But I had to take a chance.
So what was the holdup with the UFC?
Like, what led you to not sign?
There was a lot of frustration over the years.
I think since my fight against Tipe, my first fight against Tipe,
my relation with the UFC never been the same.
Really?
Yeah.
Why?
In what way?
I don't know.
I tried everything.
I wasn't, I didn't, I wasn't in the, I feel like I wasn't in the right place.
And after that, then I get the directly worst fight.
It was like the worst fight and that didn't help me at all, you know?
So I was, I think from that moment, I was already put in some position out
there
because I came back, I won, I won multiple fights and they came with a new deal.
This was after Junior Dos Santos back in June, 2017.
And then he was make, we'll call for a new deal.
And then until my team was on the way to the negotiation,
who was in Anaheim when Tipe and DC was fighting the second time.
And then I'm like, no, then I say no, no new deal for Francis.
He has, he still have three fights on his contract.
And to be honest, I was even happy because I wanted to knock that deal out.
By that time, I understood a little bit about the market.
I just wanted to find out my contract and renegotiate as free, you know?
And then, a month after, we get a call from, I think, was Hunter or somebody
there, yeah?
They say, oh, yeah, let's negotiate, let's talk about a new deal for Francis.
And at that time, like, there's not a new deal.
We're all like, we just want to fight, you know?
It's already September or, yeah, we are in September.
And my last fight was in June.
I want to fight, you know?
So, the new deal staff be holding me back.
They didn't give me a fight.
Because they wanted you to sign a new deal.
They wanted me to fight a new deal.
And you didn't want to sign a new deal.
You wanted to fight your contract down and renegotiate.
I wanted to fight my contract down.
So, they were slowing things down.
They were slowing things down.
So, if you see, like, the interval between my junior dosen tons fight
and junior Rosenstruck fight was almost a year.
I mean...
It's also COVID, right?
Yeah, there was a COVID in between.
But without COVID, it would have still been, like, 10 months, right?
And then from Rosenstruck to Stipe, same thing.
Then Stipe to Syringan, almost the same thing.
It was mostly about the contract.
So, then, finally, you fight out the contract.
And then what happens?
We didn't come to an agreement at all.
Because during this time, there was still a negotiation pushing and stuff.
And I wanted to fight out that contract.
Proposal of money.
Obviously, they know my position because I was pressured financially.
You know, when you have a fight, you expect to fight at least at that level.
At that moment, I was expecting to fight at least two or three times a year,
right?
Then I get to the point that I have one fight.
I have nothing.
So, I was limited of income, stuff like that.
Then I started to borrow money.
Even before the Stipe fight, when they announced that fight,
I need to call to ask for advance of my purse to finance my training camp.
I have no money.
But I was there training and getting ready for almost a year.
So, I took some advance.
That's got to be very stressful.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But one thing, and that's like one thing that I'm always grateful about my life.
I used to do this situation, and I told myself, like, these people that don't
know me, I can live out of nothing.
I live in the street, bro.
What you did.
I live in the street, bro.
And then I'm sure in Las Vegas, you think, like, okay, I don't fight.
I just have to change everything I'm able to live out of the bare minimum.
And I don't care if I walk around, you guys say, oh, champ, oh, that's a UFC
contender, whatever it is.
Man, I just live based on what is in my, base of my asset.
I don't live beyond that.
That's why, like, I don't really trust those credit card system or those loans
and stuff.
That's America shit, bro.
I don't trust that because when it lets you down, it lets you down.
Yeah, for sure.
I check my wallet, whatever it's in my wallet, I live based on that.
I don't go loan and stuff unless, like, I'm forced at some point or it's an
investment, like, having taken the money, borrowing money for your training
camp, you know.
Right.
That's a different thing.
So you win the Serogon fight, then what happens?
Well, then, first dinner didn't come to the ring, to the octagon for the belt.
Yeah, and then after that, they get this dinner, invite us to this dinner,
trying to smooth things out.
Again, the condition at that time, I think at that time for me, he was more
than a contract.
He was, like, a lot of frustration from the past almost three years, you know.
I'm like, okay, I have no guarantee that signing this contract, I will not get
into what I was, I have been to in the past three years.
So, how about we change something that will make me feel secure?
And what did you want to change?
A lot of things.
I want, in my contract, first of all, I want a contract without extension,
because I have seen how they can abuse of those extension.
Can you explain to me how the extension works?
Oh, well, I mean, there's not a way that he works.
The extension is that, because they say if you deny a fight, they can extend
you for six months or something.
If you're hurt and can't fight, they can extend you for six months or something.
But the problem, the UFC is the judge and the party.
They decide if they will extend you.
You have no say.
So, when they say, oh, you fight tomorrow, you say, no, I'm like, okay, no
problem.
We were just checking.
And then, maybe a week after, you will receive a letter of extension, like your
contract has been extended for six months.
And that's what happened with me.
Even if you're injured?
Like, say if they propose a fight for you, like here we are in September.
If they propose a fight for you in Madison Square Garden in November, and you
say, I can't, because I'm injured.
Oh, no, that extension.
Then they put up a six-month extension.
Oh, yeah, that's extension.
Anytime you refuse a fight, is that what it is?
Yeah.
And refuse is subjective.
Right.
Depends on the term of success.
It could mean you can't fight because you're injured, like when you tore your
knee ligaments.
Oh, no, that is extension.
Extension.
Yeah, that's clearly extension.
For example, my extension, for example, the first one, when I get, when I force
tipe, right?
And I have been fighting almost once a year in the past three years.
I force tipe on March 27th.
And then April 2nd, Mick is calling my team.
And I tell them, like, oh, I want to fight, stay active.
I want to fight twice this year again.
Summer, which is July or August and December.
And then April 2nd, they are calling to ask me to fight.
And I was getting ready.
It was a big moment in my life.
I'm like, I'm bringing this trophy home.
This trophy home.
You're the champ now.
Right.
And they called to ask me if I can fight in June 12th.
It was June 12th, June 6th or something like that.
Well, I'm like, bro, give me a time.
I mean, they say, no, we were just offering in case because Francis said he
want to fight twice this year.
I'm like, yes, I do.
And I said, July the earliest and August and December.
And I knew that I can take one, two weeks, two, three weeks out, maybe go home,
do stuff and come back.
And I'm like, no, no, no, totally understandable.
He was just to check in case it's work for you.
It wasn't really.
A couple of months after, I received an extension about that.
But you know why?
Because my contract originally supposed to end in May 20th of that year.
So if my contract ends on May 20th of that year, that means the championship
close kicks in, which is one year.
But if they extend me, I have to go all the way to the extension before the
championship close kicks in.
So it was more time.
So, and when they say, no, it's okay, no problem.
We were just checking.
And I was in Cameroon on May 19th.
So one day before my original contract, which was 14 months, expired.
And then the championship kick in, I received an extension letter.
I was in Cameroon suffering of COVID at that time.
So I received an extension letter.
So now I'm extended until November 20th.
Even though you told them you wanted to fight in July?
Yeah.
So they just tack on.
Oh, no.
They just tacked on.
And you have nothing to say.
It's effective from the moment that they send that letter out.
Okay.
So your new contract, you wanted no extensions.
That's one thing.
Yeah.
That's one thing.
Okay.
Was one of them the ability to box?
One of them was the ability to box.
They say that wasn't an option.
Boxing is dead.
It's not possible.
This and that.
Now, what does that feel like to you, knowing that Conor McGregor did 