'Nothing made me happier': Dana White squashes potential Francis Ngannou return despite contract reveal

UFC boss Dana White has squashed a potential return for Francis Ngannou, despite the former heavyweight champion revealing his PFL contract would expire soon.

Ngannou left the promotion in early-2023 following a contract dispute and he was stripped of the title, soon turning his attention to boxing.

The 39-year-old fought heavyweight superstars Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, but lost both bouts and then returned to mixed martial arts with PFL.

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Since signing with the promotion more than two years ago, Ngannou has only fought once where he knocked out Renan Ferreira inside two minutes in late-2024.

In an interview with Canadian-American fight journalist Ariel Helwani this week, Ngannou revealed that his contract with PFL was coming to an end and he was waiting for a fight to be scheduled.

"I'm getting very close with the PFL contract, they have to give me a fight," he said.

Ngannou was then asked about a potential UFC return and comments he made regarding a potential fight with Jon Jones at the White House card in 2026.

"Yes, if that could happen … but that fight is so complicated," he replied.

Watch all the action from the 2025 Professional Fighters League, including Cris Cyborg vs Australia's Sara Collins, live and on demand on Stan Sport

The event, which has been backed significantly by US president Donald Trump, will take place in the middle of next year and is expected to feature a stack of high-profile stars.

However, despite his desire to take on Jones inside the octagon, don't expect to see Ngannou back under the UFC umbrella any time soon. 

"There was nothing that made me happier than throwing that guy over to the f-----g PFL," UFC president White said in an interview with The Mac Life.

"Let me tell you what, if we let guys go, feel bad for the f-----g company that gets them.

"We let them go for a f-----g reason. I don't have to let anybody go. I don't want to be in business with guys that I don't like and that I don't think are good guys.

"When you talk about good guys and bad guys, I'm in the fight business. Shit happens and I'm pretty lenient when it comes to tough guy shit. I'm not lenient with bad guy shit."

White also explained an alleged physical altercation between the pair before Ngannou left the company regarding a monetary dispute.

"It's not like Francis Ngannou came in here and threatened us or did anything like that - but as men, everybody who is a man knows there's these situations," he said.

"I'm in there with them for however long we're talking and I'm like, I'm done. I had another meeting. I started to walk out and he puts his hand on my chest and he says 'We're not done talking yet.' And I said, 'Oh, we're f-----g done talking.'

"I tell you guys all the time, we're in the f-----g fight business. Shit happens."

Ngannou didn't deny the claims regarding the incident when asked by Helwani.

"We shouldn't have gone this way," he said.

"I would just say it's quite disappointing the way that things went. I'm sure he has a lot of cameras there ... I just get tired of this stuff. I really saw that and scrolled."

Ngannou is one of the sport's most feared heavyweights in history, winning 18 of his 21 professional fights and 15 of those coming via knockout.

The only fighters to defeat him inside the UFC cage are Stipe Miocic and Derrick Lewis.