{"id":79843,"date":"2025-08-18T23:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T23:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/79843\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T23:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T23:24:09","slug":"francis-ngannou-explains-absence-from-pfl-africa-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/79843\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Ngannou explains absence from PFL Africa debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professional Fighters League (PFL) Super Fights Heavyweight World Champion Francis Ngannou and PFL chairman Donn Davis are not exactly seeing eye-to-eye<\/a> these days.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because Davis admitted he was \u201cdisappointed<\/a>\u201d that Ngannou skipped the organization\u2019s first two PFL Africa cards, noting that the pair had worked together for two years<\/a> to make the project a reality.<\/p>\n

Well, the former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight champion-turned-PFL Africa chairman <\/a>fired back with his own explanation, making it clear his absence was intentional.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as my reaction, I don\u2019t think it was something he should have [said publicly],\u201d Ngannou told Ariel Helwani. \u201cAt least if it was me, I wouldn\u2019t keep it out there. Now it gets in the position that we have to bring up context, like why didn\u2019t I come there. He didn\u2019t know why I didn\u2019t come. I\u2019ve been waiting for this for two years, and this was the big part of it. So, when you\u2019re still working on something, unless you think it\u2019s off, it\u2019s not a thing that you bring outside. I wasn\u2019t okay with something, but I wasn\u2019t the one who was going to take it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ngannou went on to explain the core issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, if you want to know what exactly is the reason I wasn\u2019t there, I wasn\u2019t very okay with the first PFL Africa event seeming to be like an undercard,\u201d Ngannou added. \u201cQuoting him, we worked a lot for that, for PFL Africa. I hoped the PFL Africa debut would have at least had its glory, its moment, but that wasn\u2019t my decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

PFL Africa 1: Cape Town<\/a> was held July 19, 2025, in South Africa and featured several of the league\u2019s biggest names\u2014Dakota Ditcheva, A.J. McKee, and Johnny Eblen\u2014on the main card. However, the event was branded as PFL Road to Dubai Champions Series, while the PFL Africa portion was relegated to the undercard and largely overlooked.<\/p>\n

The second PFL Africa event<\/a>, held Aug. 9 in Johannesburg, produced plenty of finishes and excitement (watch highlights<\/a>), but lacked promotion and featured no marquee PFL names.<\/p>\n

While Ngannou praised the in-cage action, he doubled down on his stance.<\/p>\n

\u201cPFL Africa is something that is made to be run forever,\u201d Ngannou said. \u201cSo, as we take the time it takes to set things up right, then the company will run properly. I don\u2019t have any problem with going, as long as we get things right and feel comfortable. Because I\u2019m going there, stepping forward, putting myself in line as a guarantee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, at least I\u2019m going to make sure I stand by what I\u2019m saying,\u201d Ngannou concluded.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no word yet on when the next PFL Africa card will take place\u2014but if history is any indication, expect another Davis rant on LinkedIn before long.<\/p>\n

For all the latest PFL news and notes click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professional Fighters League (PFL) Super Fights Heavyweight World Champion Francis Ngannou and PFL chairman Donn Davis are not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,8810,82,3194],"class_list":{"0":"post-79843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-professional-fighters-league-pfl","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}