Dana White denies Francis Ngannou's boxing earnings: 'It's all a myth'

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Dana White insists Francis Ngannou didn't make more money in boxing than he would have if he had stayed in the UFC.

One of the reasons Ngannou left the UFC for the PFL is to pursue his dream of boxing. He was able to land two mega fights that resulted in a narrow split decision loss to Tyson Fury and a knockout loss to Anthony Joshua.

White has recently dedicated himself to promoting boxing, whose business model he says is broken. When asked if Ngannou earns more than the $8 million from boxing, White replied that he was offered to fight Jon Jones and vehemently denied that claim.

“I know all the crap you don’t know and I don’t care what everyone says,” White told MMA Junkie and other reporters following Dana White’s Contender Series 74 on Tuesday at the UFC Apex. “I don’t care. But that is a fact. He was offered more money because I know the actual numbers.”

White, who didn't give numbers, also said the idea that you can make a lot more money boxing is “not necessarily true.”

“That’s not necessarily true,” White told Kevin Iole. “This is the nonsense that people publicly believe, but it is not the truth. Total bullsh*t, total bullsh*t. It's this whole myth that makes everyone say, “Oh, let's just do fucking boxing!” and all that nonsense. Boxing doesn't work. Boxing doesn't work. How does it work? It takes a fucking Saudi trillionaire to fight fucking fights, and even Saudi trillionaires are sick of the fucking nonsense. It's all a damn myth. It's all a myth.

“Like the whole statement you just made: That’s absolutely not true. It's these kinds of damning statements and these kinds of quotes from the media that make the whole thing shitty. All these fights are happening. It takes a damn Saudi trillionaire. Any damn guy who tries to box ends up losing a lot of money. The model doesn't work. There’s an unlimited amount of Saudi money showing up and that’s what makes these fights possible, and even people with that much money are damn sick of the nonsense.”