Francis Ngannou does not have any immediate plans to return to the UFC and seems perfectly happy continuing to ply his trade in the PFL smart cage, according to his coach. During an interview with Online Slots, Dewey Cooper expressed this thought when asked several questions regarding the lineal MMA heavyweight champion.
There have been some reports as of late that teased a UFC return might be possible per comments from Ngannou's coach at Xtreme Couture Eric Nicksick. Nicksick has since clarified that those comments were misconstrued a bit, with Dana White and Ngannou himself also seemingly dispelling notions of an octagon return for the former UFC heavyweight champion.
When touching on the topic himself, Dewey Cooper said,
“I don't see any chance of Francis returning to the UFC. The other coaches on our staff may think differently. “I can see him doing a kind of co-promotion thing, maybe a UFC fight, but in conjunction with the PFL. “Because when all this went down and we ‘fumbled the bag’, the PFL had Francis' back, and one thing about Francis, he appreciates the support he got from PFL."
"“He's not just gonna forget about that when the whole world said he screwed up and he blew it, or that he was afraid to fight someone - which was never the truth. “The PFL came to him and had his back, so as of now he's still with the PFL, so in order to do anything, the PFL would definitely have to be involved.”
Francis Ngannou and Dana White barbs throw cold water on possible UFC return
With UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones retiring from MMA and interim champion Tom Aspinall finally being upgraded to champion outright, but amid a fairly unpopulated landscape at heavyweight, a Francis Ngannou return may be needed more than ever. At the UFC Baku post-event press conference, Dana White announced that Jon Jones elected to retire from the sport of mixed martial arts, but the promotional figurehead also addressed someone else within that UFC heavyweight title lineage.
When expressing his feelings on Ngannou overall and if the PFL champion could ever return to the UFC fold, White stated [via Bloody Elbow],
“I’m not a big fan, I would be shocked if Francis ever came back here, on lots of different levels, I’m not a fan and he doesn’t always mean what he says publicly."
To that statement, 'The Predator' would respond to White on his personal X page as Francis Ngannou quipped,
"Did I say I'm ever coming back?"
