Former Champion Luke Rockhold Slams UFC for Overlooking Francis Ngannou in Black History Month Tribute: “The Most Historical Black Figure in MMA”

UFC has announced that they will be celebrating ‘Black history Month’ in acknowledgment of all the achievements of African-American athletes from past and present. They also posted a video montage on Instagram of all the African-American fighters, except for Francis Ngannou. Former UFC star Luke Rockhold has reacted to the UFC’s social media post and pointed out Ngannou’s exclusion. Francis Ngannou had an overstretched contract dispute with Dana White’s promotion. ‘The Predator’ claimed to have little or no freedom in the UFC to pursue his own interests. Dana White stripped Ngannou off his title because of the contract negotiation failure and eventual exit from the promotion.

Francis Ngannou wanted to pursue other ventures, like boxing Tyson Fury. But the UFC did not meet his demands. Ngannou was one of the most popular and dominant fighters during his stint in the UFC. However, the UFC excluded him from its video montage dedicated to its Black fighters. It prompted the response of Luke Rockhold.

Luke Rockhold calls out UFC for excluding Francis Ngannou and his achievements

Retired UFC star, Luke Rockhold, recently criticized the UFC for turning its back on Ngannou’s impressive accomplishments in a comment on Instagram. He is a former UFC middleweight champion whose MMA record was 16 wins and 6 losses. Rockhold wrote: “Just gonna erase [Francis Ngannou] from the record books huh?”

It shocked Rockhold to see Ngannou’s exclusion and claimed that ‘The Predator’ was one the greatest fighters to hail from the continent of Africa. He wrote: “[Francis Ngannou] is the most historical black figure in MMA. Baddest man on the planet straight from Africa.”

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Luke Rockhold has had his fair share of disputes with Dana White as well. He has criticized the UFC boss on multiple occasions regarding the business model of the promotion. Rockhold also mentioned he understands Ngannou’s predicament and empathizes with his conflicts with the biggest MMA promotion in the world. The Cameroonian-French fighter has accomplished more than some of the fighters that UFC included in their video, is what several social media users felt.

Rockhold believes the UFC is acting unfairly regarding Ngannou’s relationship with the organization. As Black History Month begins, he believes Ngannou merits commendation for his accomplishments in the promotion.

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