Francis Ngannou and Jake Paul have had a curious history with one another, especially as of late, with the former now seeming open to a fight with the latter after some recent happenings.
In an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Ngannou touched upon being unsure about the fight offer that he had received to box Jake Paul in December after Paul’s planned November bout with Gervonta ‘Tank
Davis fell out. This came as the result of reported legal issue Davis was facing and now Anthony Joshua has officially stepped up to battle Paul on December 19th in a boxing bout that transpires on Netflix in Miami, Florida.
There was some semblance of an offer extended to the former UFC heavyweight champion to battle ‘The Problem Child’ though and getting into the details of that when recently speaking to Helwani, Ngannou said,
“Nakisa [Bidarian] reached out and let me know that Gervonta Davis is having some situation, so he’s not going to be in the fight anymore. They were looking for a replacement, and then they thought about me.”
“I was very confused. How can you guys go from Gervonta Davis to me? I didn’t even believe it.”
“I personally didn’t talk money, but he was ready to pay. They had an intention to pay me a good amount of money… It was so confusing.”
Francis Ngannou addresses Dana White physical altercation narrative
Francis Ngannou also touched upon another hotly discussed topic that currently surrounds him these days as ‘The Predator’ responded to claims from Dana White that Ngannou had gotten physical with him when he was a UFC contracted athlete.
In the same Ariel Helwani interview, Ngannou mentioned he ultimately did not find the recent report to be something he found particularly important and felt like the relationship with the UFC president should not have ever gotten to this point. When pressed further by the media member and as Helwani pointedly questioned the hulking heavyweight if he ever put his hands on Dana White, Ngannou quipped [via BJPenn.com],
“In his office, that’s what he said, right? Well I’m sure he has a lot of cameras there… If every time that somebody says something about you then you have to do that, then it’s going to be tough. As I said, over time, I just get tired of this stuff. I really saw that and scrolled. I scrolled, I move. I get past it.”