With one fight left on his contract with PFL, Francis Ngannou recently teased his interest in a potential reunion with the UFC for a fight against Jon Jones at the planned White House card in June.
While UFC CEO Dana White later shot down that possibility after expression no interest in working with Ngannou again, the former heavyweight champion even mentioning the fight had many wondering if “The Predator” was somehow regretting his decision to leave the promotion in free agency. In a very public split, Ngannou relinquished the UFC heavyweight title and signed with PFL before booking back-to-back boxing matches against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
As far as his MMA career goes, Ngannou has fought just once since leaving the UFC and that came with a first-round demolition over Renan Ferreira back in 2024. But despite showing interest in a potential Jones fight, UFC veteran Matt Brown refuses to believe Ngannou has any regrets about the decisions he made for his career, especially knowing the financial windfall he reportedly received for his two boxing matches.
“Personally, I highly, highly doubt he’s having any regrets,” Brown said on The Fighter vs The Writer. “I think that’s the competitor in him speaking out. I’m sure he wants to fight Jon Jones. He wants to fight the best in the world. Of course, he wants a big fight and make sales and all that stuff. I think it’s the competitor in him. I don’t think there’s a single regret.
“He made more in one boxing match than he would have made in his entire UFC career, than Jon Jones has made in his entire UFC career — the greatest ever and some of the biggest fights ever. He made more than Conor [McGregor] has made in his entire UFC career. I don’t think there’s a single regret in that respect.”
Now Brown understands that at his heart, Ngannou is a fighter and the legacy he leaves behind is largely going to be remembered for his exploits inside the ring or cage and not how much money he’s got in the bank.
That’s where Ngannou might wish he had different opportunities ahead of him because as it stands, his options are limited when it comes to opponents in either boxing or MMA.
“He’s a competitor. He wants to fight the best,” Brown said. “I’m sure in the back of his head, his last fight against Renan Ferreira, he’s like ‘I don’t want to be fighting these guys, I want to fight Jon Jones.’ If there’s any regret there, which is probably as a competitor, he’s regretting it while he’s sleeping on silk sheets on a yacht.
“It’s not like he’s regretting it while he’s sitting in a two-bedroom apartment in nowhere Mississippi. He’s like ‘oh f*ck, I f*cked my life up so bad, I’m going to go do meth or something.’ He’s chilling on a yacht like ‘I wish I could have fought Jon Jones, this sucks.’ How much regret is that really?”
Brown is quick to point out that everybody involved in combat sports has to remember the term “prizefighting,” and in that regard, Ngannou obviously made the best possible decision for his career.
Beyond the hefty paydays he reportedly received for the boxing matches against Fury and Joshua, Ngannou also likely cashed in with a sizable salary for his lone fight in the PFL where he personally negotiated his opponent also receiving a multi-million dollar paycheck.
That’s why it’s hard for Brown to buy that Ngannou is mired in regret when it comes to the choices he made before leaving the UFC and then ultimately ended up in boxing and the PFL.
“I just think regret might even be the wrong word,” Brown explained. “It’s just on his mind. He’s thinking ‘I want to fight the best guys.’ I guess when I think about regret, I think about someone kind of being upset or sad or wishing they did things different. I’m sure when he’s chilling in his $10 million mansion and his grandkids and great grandkids having a million dollars in the bank at 18 years old, he’s not going to sit there going ‘I should have done this differently.’
“In terms of prizefighting, which is what we are doing, he won. He won the prize fight. He got the f*cking prize, and he fought for it. He got the f*cking prize.”
With Ngannou approaching his 40th birthday in 2026, the clock is already ticking on how much time he has left in his career.
If he sticks with the PFL, Ngannou could possibly face new heavyweight champion Vadim Nemkov next or maybe he could pursue another lucrative boxing match against an opponent like Deontay Wilder.
Do those fights present Ngannou with the opportunity to raise his stock as possibly the best heavyweight in MMA history? It seems unlikely and that’s probably what Ngannou is missing right now when he talks about reuniting with the UFC for a showdown against someone like Jones.
“He’s going to say whatever he can to try and get the best fights that he can, and I’m sure he would love to have a better legacy,” Brown said. “The UFC, they’re the superpower, right? He’s always going to have a ‘what could have been’ legacy. What he could have done in terms of competition and stuff. I’m sure he thinks about that but again, I’m sure when he puts on his $20,000 suit and his $100,000 watch, [he says] ‘I think I’ll be OK, I think I can accept this’ and get into his Ferrari and drive around for an hour in the wind. Life will go on.
“As a competitor, I’m sure he thinks about it regularly. He’s 39. He’s on his way to the end, very close. He’s going to try to squeeze all the juice out that he can.”
As far as his financials, Brown can’t help but feel that Ngannou made the right decision when he decided to forgo signing a new deal with the UFC and opted to bet on himself instead. He may have lost both of his boxing matches, and his one victory in the PFL probably didn’t do much for his overall resume, but Ngannou still won in every possible metric measurable when it comes to his longterm future.
“My dad used to say ‘money doesn’t buy happiness, son, but being broke doesn’t buy shit so go make some f*cking money and figure it out,’” Brown said with a laugh. “That’s a really good point. Make the f*cking money and then figure it the f*ck out. I think that’s the situation that Ngannou is in right now. He’s trying to figure it out. He’s got money that’s going to last generations and generations. What’s going to bring me happiness now?
“I know a lot of very wealthy people who went through this. I’ve spoken to them about it where they went through these kinds of times where money isn’t an issue to them anymore, and it’s like what’s next? I did that job. What’s next? My guess, I don’t know Francis at all, but my guess is that’s kind of where he’s at right now. He’s thinking what’s next? What can I do to have true fulfillment in my life? What can bring happiness for the rest of my life? Being that he’s still physically a very capable fighter, that’s what he wants to do. He’s a fighter at heart and that’s what he wants to do. He never has to worry about money for the rest of his life so when he’s over the fighting part, he’ll find another thing. It’s a lot easier to go down that path finding happiness when you’ve got $50 million in the bank.”
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