Could one of the top fighters under the Professional Fighters League banner be headed to the UFC?
UFC President Dana White was busy on Thursday. He is in Abu Dhabi for UFC 308 fight week, and he’s been doing rounds with the media.
Whenever that happens, the polarizing face of the No. 1 MMA organization is bound to deliver some juicy sound bites that stir the proverbial pot in the sport.
You can put an exponent next to that concept for Thursday as White dropped bombs, most of which targeted the Professional Fighters League.
White and PFL owner Donn Davis have been in a war of words for months, with the latter seemingly drawing the former’s ire more by the day. In addition to several anti-PFL comments from White on Thursday, the UFC’s head man had some exciting things to say about Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov.
The 26-year-old is the cousin of UFC bantamweight contender Umar and Hall-of-Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov. Usman is undefeated and currently ranks in the Top 10 on Fight Matrix in his weight class.
Usman made headlines earlier this week when he announced he would likely go to the UFC in two years once his training partner and another of Khabib’s proteges, Islam Makhachev retires.
White was asked if he’d heard about Usman’s interest in fighting for the UFC and if he’d sign him once his contract with the PFL was complete.
“All of their good people wanna be over here anyway, so I would imagine that eventually he’ll be here,” White said. “Nobody wants to fight in the PFL–except for Francis [Ngannou].”
Here is a look at the clip.
Davis vowed to do everything he could to convince Usman to stay with the organization once his current contract is done, but it may be impossible to keep him from joining Umar and Makhachev. It would seemingly make everything easier for his camp.
White’s Ngannou reference was part of a more extended rant based on the former’s claim that his offer to the lineal heavyweight champion was more lucrative than he got from the PFL.
Almost no one believes that especially when you consider what Ngannou made in two boxing matches against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. That said, what White does to Ngannou is not much different than what Davis has done to Kayla Harrison since she left the PFL for the UFC.
Davis said Harrison “ran from” fights against Larissa Pacheco and Cris Cyborg to come to the UFC. White insists Ngannou didn’t want to fight Jon Jones. The similarities are easy to see, and it’s all entertaining if put into the proper perspective.
In any case, having two major MMA organizations to discuss is becoming increasingly more fun.
However, when it’s all said, White will probably be dead on with his prediction about Usman. The roots may run too deep for the PFL in this one.
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