Francis Ngannou after booking Tyson Fury fight: ‘For some reason, I always prove Dana White wrong’

Francis Ngannou never understood why UFC President Dana White would try to bury him on his way out of the promotion, especially since the former UFC heavyweight champion — who just booked a mega-fight in the boxing ring with Tyson Fury this fall — believes he’s done nothing but one-up is former employer.

“For some reason, I always prove Dana White wrong — even when he’s on my side,” Ngannou told SiriusXM. “I always prove him wrong, every single time. This is just our story.”

On Tuesday, it was announced that Ngannou will face Fury in a 10-round boxing match on Oct. 28 in Saudi Arabia. MMA Fighting first reported that the matchup will be contested as a professional bout with the results going on both fighters’ records, although Fury’s WBC title won’t be up for grabs.

Ngannou was well aware that White had set his sights on having Fury come over to the UFC to face Jon Jones in an MMA fight, which was a head scratcher for the recently signed PFL competitor for multiple reasons.

“They were ready to do Jon Jones and Tyson Fury in MMA — why couldn’t they do Ngannou and Fury in boxing? I don’t know,” Ngannou said. “I think [he] did that to try to take the fight away from me, and Dana did sent out a contract [for the Jones fight]. He sent out the contract, which I think was very embarrassing because that contract was rejected, and he signed mine for the GIMIK Fight Promotions.”

For Ngannou, while many over at the UFC, and a chunk of the MMA community continued to say that the prolific knockout artist made the wrong choice walking away from the UFC, and leaving a huge fight with Jones on the table, Ngannou can’t help but smirk at the haters and doubters.

“It’s not a secret that so many people wanted me to fail,” Ngannou said. “They don’t want me to succeed, it’s not a secret, it’s quite obvious, and you all know about it.”