White said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe offered Francis a deal that would have made him the highest paid heavyweight in the history of the company. More than (Brock) Lesnar, more than anybody, and he turned the deal down. We get to this point where I\u2019ve told you guys before, if you don\u2019t want to be here, you don\u2019t have to be here.”<\/em><\/p>\n Continuing, the UFC President added:<\/p>\n \u201cI think Francis Ngannou is in a place right now where he doesn\u2019t want to take a lot of risk. (He) feels he\u2019s in a good position where he could fight lesser opponents and make more money. So we\u2019re going to let him do that.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to release him from his contract, we\u2019re going to give up our right to match, and he can go wherever he wants and do whatever he wants. That\u2019s where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The announcement was then made that it will be Jon Jones (26-1 MMA) vs Ciryl Gane (11-1 MMA) in the main event, challenging for the vacant heavyweight belt at UFC 285.<\/p>\n UFC 285 will take place on Saturday, March 4, 2023, at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.<\/p>\n The fallout from the announcement that Francis Ngannou has been released was fast and furious.<\/p>\n Eddie Alvarez, (30-8 MMA), former UFC lightweight champion, who parted ways with the organization in 2018, weighed in on the ‘false narrative’ the UFC is making concerning Ngannou and his release. Taking to ‘Twitter<\/a>‘, Alvarez said:<\/p>\n Ufc simply lost the bid for Francis , instead of admitting that , they go with the narrative the the Scariest mother fucker alive is Afraid to fight in the UFC hahhahahahhahahahhahahahhaa These jokes write themselves #PHSUnreal<\/a><\/p>\n — Eddie Alvarez (@Ealvarezfight) January 16, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"Francis](\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Francis-Ngannou-Dana-White-1.jpg\")
\n