Francis Ngannou shockingly claims borrowing $200,000 from Kamaru Usman during tough UFC times

Francis Ngannou once belonged to UFC's trifecta of "African Kings", holding title gold along with friend Kamaru Usman.

Francis Ngannou shockingly claims borrowing $200,000 from Kamaru Usman during tough UFC times

Kamaru Usman maintains a healthy dose of acquaintance with the French-Cameroonian fighter (Source: IMAGO/Instagram)

Know of veteran play-by-play commentator Daniel Cormier‘s ‘DC&RC’ Show podcast for ESPN MMA? It has now evolved to the ‘Good Guy-Bad Guy‘ MMA Weekly show with Chael Sonnen in tow. This is after Ryan Clark (of NFL fame) called it quits in the “All Good Things Must Come to an End: 2/13” segment (ESPN Podcenter). Now, on similar lines, former P4P phenoms Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo have launched their own weekly show. One prominent guest was Francis Ngannou.

The ‘Pound 4 Pound show‘ podcast has already enlisted an array of promised names. In a sitdown with MMA Junkie‘s coverage journo Mike Bohn, the duo said the same. One of their foremost guests happened to be the ‘Predator‘. Ngannou is to make his second pro boxing outing soon, in the extended Riyadh Season.

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Speaking on it, and on his transversal from UFC to PFL, he mentioned:

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[On turning down offers of since-failed negotiations from UFC]...I turned them down...You know I took $600K for my last fight in the UFC, yeah...as opposed to $5 million that they were offering for the same fight....right...and I was like 'Bro!?'...And I was broke, at the time I owed Usman $200K...
Francis Ngannou on the 2nd Episode of “Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru and Henry”

The footage comes at the behest of Usman and ‘Triple C‘ recapping moments of the inaugural “Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru and Henry” episode. It had Francis Ngannou over as a guest. The ex-UFC heavyweight faces Anthony Joshua in the ‘Knockout Chaos’ headliner in Riyadh. The 10-round heavyweight clash PPV event on DAZN accordingly marks his second try at boxing. He and Usman maintain a healthy friendship.

The issue of owing money to the Nigerian sprouts from the topic of Ngannou seeking an out due to failed negotiations with UFC. He touched on it at length during the Club Shay Shay podcast with Shannon Sharpe. It called to attention the case of minimal fighter pay and uneasiness about rehashing fighter contracts. Usman, however, humbly shrugged off the issue of lending to his friend.

Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman: The story of their bond

Former welterweight champ and P4P king Kamaru Usman recently co-hosts a weekly podcast. This is along with 135lber Henry Cejudo. The wrestling phenom has dabbled in podcasts and such projects; but, as for the ‘Nigerian Nightmare,‘ he tends to be not so overt.

Francis Ngannou had support from Kamaru Usman during his boxing debut
Francis Ngannou had support from Kamaru Usman during his boxing debut (Source: Twitter)

Their ‘Pound 4 Pound‘ podcast aims at the evolution of combat news coverage and deliberation. They have been receiving momentous praise. Factoring into that is the appearance of Francis Ngannou. He and Usman have a long-standing friendship.

Here’s how it goes:

Kamaru Usman was in his corner at UFC 260 and a few others; coming out of Africa, he, Usman, and Israel Adesanya joining in a reunion had delighted fight fans. Adesanya had also favored him in his UFC 270 heavyweight unification bout. Lining up with info from ESPN Stats & Info, Adesnay’s betting slip had Ngannou executing multiple takedowns; which he did. He also stood by the French-Cameroonian after his controversial exit.

He and Usman also nudged him to use the ‘Superman‘ punch that caused the knockdown of lineal heavyweight Tyson Fury. Usman supported him at the Riyadh Boxing Season 2023 debut, where Ngannou came danger-close to knocking out the rival.

Their littlest of snippets and collaborations have gone viral more than once, which have consequently also included African peer Adesanya.

At one point, even Chael Sonnen had prompted that UFC should promote these “3 African Kings” and bank on their association. Which the fighters maintain vibrantly to this day.

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