While the “time heals everything” adage may hold true for many, it certainly does not for Dana White when it comes to his long-running rift with Francis Ngannou. More than three years have passed since ‘The Predator’ left the UFC, yet the UFC CEO remains adamant about never doing business with his former heavyweight champion again.

Yesterday, Dana White joined the Nightcap podcast to promote this weekend’s boxing spectacle between Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn. However, the conversation eventually turned to Ngannou when the host asked the 57-year-old whether he could ever see himself working with the former UFC champion again. White’s response was as blunt as it was final.

“Listen, Ngannou is on my Oscar De La Hoya list,” White said. “Look at the history of Francis Ngannou and the other companies that he has been with. You know, since he’s… he’s a bad guy, man. He’s a bad guy. I’m at a point in my life that I don’t want to do business with bad guys.”

White has maintained that stance for years, and the roots of it can be traced back to Ngannou’s final days with the UFC. The former heavyweight champion entered his last UFC fight against Ciryl Gane with an eight-fight deal behind him, but by the time that contract ran its course in 2022, his relationship with the promotion had deteriorated beyond repair.

At the heart of the dispute was money. The Cameroonian-French MMA star believed the UFC was not paying him what he was worth, while White insisted that the promotion had offered him a deal that would have made him the highest-paid heavyweight on its roster.

Francis Ngannou ultimately turned down the offer and walked away from the UFC in January 2023. Since then, White has made no secret of his disdain for Ngannou, repeatedly insisting that he would never do business with the former champ again.

The two sides have since gone their separate ways. Ngannou moved on to the PFL and pursued a boxing career, while White has repeatedly made it clear that the door back to the UFC is firmly closed. Even when members of Ngannou’s own team have floated the possibility of a return, White has shown little interest in entertaining it.

Most notably, White shut down the idea of Ngannou’s return at UFC Baku last year after his coach, Eric Nicksick, expressed interest in seeing his fighter compete in the promotion again. 

But White’s latest comments suggest that his issue with Ngannou extends beyond their well-documented UFC fallout. The UFC CEO specifically pointed to the fighter’s history with other organizations as an example.

Back in 2015, the UFC champion became embroiled in a dispute with his former coach, Fernand Lopez. The MMA Factory head coach accused Ngannou of refusing to pay his gym membership fees, eventually leading to a controversial split between the two. The 19-3 fighter subsequently joined Xtreme Couture and began training under Eric Nicksick.

That pattern appeared again during Ngannou’s time with the PFL. Despite landing an $8 million-per-fight deal and taking on the chairmanship of PFL Africa, the former UFC champion missed the promotion’s first-ever event on the continent. His absence prompted former PFL CEO Donn Davis to admit that he was “disappointed” with the 40-year-old.

The relationship eventually reached its own breaking point, with Ngannou parting ways with the PFL after just one fight under its banner despite the lucrative deal he had been handed. It marked his second departure from a major MMA promotion after leaving the UFC, and the similarities between the two situations naturally led to questions about whether Francis Ngannou’s approach to doing business with promotions was becoming a recurring issue.

For White, those disputes have only added to his reasons for wanting nothing to do with Ngannou. But that only covers their professional fallout. White once revealed that Ngannou took their feud beyond business and personally confronted him.

Dana White reveals Francis Ngannou once grabbed him by the collar

Dana White has had his fair share of heated relationships with UFC champions, with his feuds involving stars such as Anderson Silva becoming part of the promotion’s history. However, the 57-year-old has previously described his relationship with Francis Ngannou as something more serious, claiming that the former UFC heavyweight champion once physically confronted him over a $50,000 bonus.

“He was pissed off he didn’t get a $50,000 in his last fight, that he didn’t get the bonus of the night,” White said during the Flagrant podcast late last year. “I said, ‘Francis, you didn’t get it for this, that [reason].’ And he’s in my office, and he’s arguing with me. I’m like, this guy got this, this guy got that and this is why.

“The conversation’s over, and I’m starting to leave, and he grabs me by my shirt and pushes me back in my office, and I said, ‘Dude, get your f—ing hands off me.’ I could see in this guy’s face and in his eyes and the way he’s acting who this guy really f—ing is.”

White later made another serious allegation, claiming that Ngannou had also physically threatened UFC CBO Hunter Campbell. However, that part of the story was subsequently called into question after White appeared to walk back his own characterization of the incident. In a later interview with The Mac Life, the UFC CEO stated that Ngannou had not actually tried to “threaten” them, adding another layer of uncertainty to an already contentious account.

Regardless, the episode offers a glimpse into just how deep the hostility between the two men has become. Their original disagreement may have started with a contract, but years later, neither side appears particularly interested in repairing the relationship.

Francis Ngannou has since carved out a new chapter of his career outside the UFC, while Dana White remains firmly in control of the promotion. And with the UFC CEO still insisting that he does not want to do business with “bad guys,” a return to the Octagon for ‘The Predator’ appears to remain a distant possibility, at least for as long as White remains the CEO.