Francis Ngannou makes title shot case, Dana White says it's not that easy

MINNEAPOLIS – Francis Ngannouhad a quick conversation with UFC president Dana White after his quick knockout of former heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos.

White and Ngannou had different takeaways from the chat. Ngannou thought he’d sealed the next title shot, even though White wasn’t 100 percent willing to commit.

“He said we’re going to talk about it,” Ngannou said. “I assume that means yes.”

As Ngannou spoke to reporters at the press conference for UFC on ESPN 3 at Target Center, White, speaking on ESPN, outlined the reasons for caution in declaring Ngannou the next title challenger.

First and foremost, there’s an upcoming title rematch between champ Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic in August at UFC 241.

“This fight has to play out first,” White said. “Stipe and Cormier has to play out. … Who wins, how they come out of that fight, what does Cormier want to do next if he wins.

“There’s a lot of things that play into what’s next. It’s not as easy as, ‘Oh, I won tonight, and I’m next for the fight.’ And we know this. I go through this every single time there’s a fight.”

Ngannou acknowledges the UFC will need time to figure things out. He just assumes he’ll be a part of the plan. If Cormier or Miocic get injured, or Cormier wins and calls it a career, or there’s a long layoff for the winner, he believes all roads should lead to him.

“Do I deserve the title shot? I think the answer is yes,” Ngannou said. “Then what happens if somebody gets injury, I just want them to give me the title contract and then we have time to prepare and put things together.

“If ‘DC’ wins and decides to retire, the division will not stay without a champion. They will have to figure out something, and I’ll be at the head of the line. I’m not concerned about that.”

Ngannou is also not concerned whether it’s Cormier or Miocic waiting for him after UFC 241. He assumes he’ll get a rematch with Miocic one way or another, and a fight with an outgoing Cormier will be an honor.

“Stipe is my rematch that I want to do, and ‘DC’ is a double champ and is about to retire,” Ngannou said. “Either fight would be good for me.”

Ngannou got a little testy when asked how he would combat the perception that he might have a repeat of his previous title shot, a loss to Miocic made lopsided by his inability to wrestle. To the Cameroon-born fighter, he’s done enough to prove himself.

“I don’t need to convince people,” he said. “I’ve just got to go out there and fight. How do I convince people that I’m going to beat Junior tonight? The only thing that convinced people was the result.”

Ngannou believes he’s hit his groove in the octagon, and there’s no going backward.

“After my two losses, I tried to figure out why I was doing it, and I realized at the beginning, I didn’t want to do MMA,” he said. “I didn’t expect to do a professional career in MMA. But since I was having fun training, I’m like, OK, let’s do it.

“It’s fun. At some point, I kind of forgot that. So in the last three fights, I put that in line and tried to focus on it.”

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