ABU DHABI – The old adage about three sides to every divorce – each side, plus the truth – no doubt comes in to play in MMA on the regular.

That likely is the case in the ongoing war of words between former UFC heavyweight champion and current PFL heavyweight superfights champ Francis Ngannou and his ex-promoter, UFC CEO Dana White, who Saturday brought his latest salvo when he told MMA Junkie he has a personal dislike for Ngannou that goes back years, prior to when he became the UFC heavyweight champion.

But recency bias and revisionist history also seem to come into play in MMA on the regular, and though he touted Ngannou as the proverbial “baddest man on the planet” while he was his heavyweight titleholder – and even famously said Jon Jones should reconsider moving to heavyweight, where Ngannou would be waiting, and should drop to middleweight, instead – White now says Ngannou ran from Jones, and then White got what he wanted, which was Ngannou out of the company.

“(Ngannou) didn’t want that fight (with Jones),” White told MMA Junkie after UFC 308 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. “He could have stayed and took that fight. He didn’t want that fight. Tom Aspinall deserves that fight.”

Former light heavyweight champion Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC), who won the vacant belt against Ciryl Gane after Ngannou left the UFC for the PFL, is set to fight former champ Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in three weeks in the UFC 309 main event at Madison Square Garden. Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) currently holds the interim heavyweight title and presumably will fight the Jones-Miocic winner.

Ngannou (17-3) maintains he left in a contract dispute, and this past week said he suspects White has been hoping for him to fail outside the UFC. Since he left, Ngannou lost two boxing matches to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, then made his PFL debut with a quick first-round finish of 2023 champ Renan Ferreira in the PFL: Battle of the Giants pay-per-view headliner eight days ago in Saudi Arabia.

Instead, White pointed to Ngannou’s fight against Derrick Lewis at UFC 226, one fight after he lost a title shot to Miocic in January 2018. That bout, which Lewis won by decision, has been widely panned as one of the worst heavyweight fights in the promotion’s history – at least relative to the expectations on paper going into it.

“When have you ever heard a story in all the years (about us owing a fighter money)? We’ve been a business, even when it was upside down, where we owed somebody money – never happened. So he’s full of sh*t there. Then (he says) I lost? I didn’t lose anything. I was done with Francis after the – he actually owes me money, because we had to watch that fight with him and the ‘Black Beast.’ He should actually pay me back for that fight, and all of you. And me praying for (him to fail) – trust me: I don’t think about Francis that much.

“You guys asked me the question about the PFL (last week), and I responded. Other than that, the only one who’s praying for his demise is probably the PFL, because they signed a sh*tty contract with a guy that doesn’t deliver any numbers and ticket sales or pay-per-views, and they’ve got to keep paying this guy for however long. Good for him – not good for them.”

In recent months, White has maintained a stance that Jones is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, despite the fact he has fought just twice in the past five years. But he said in spite of that, his personal thoughts on Ngannou go back a lot farther than his contract dispute.

White implied that in his opinion, the quality of Ngannou’s character was not in line with the kind of fighter he wants to have part of the promotion, but did not explicitly detail reasons why.

“Let me tell you what: There were two guys here. I wanted to cut him. Some day, I’ll tell you the story,” White said. “I was all about Francis in the beginning, and then I found out who Francis was. I told the two guys who asked me not to cut Francis, ‘When somebody shows you who they are, believe them.’ Believe me: I have no sleepless nights over Francis leaving.

“I didn’t like Francis as a person – wasn’t a guy I wanted to do business with. I didn’t like Francis. My boys were telling me he’s misunderstood, and I told them when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. It wasn’t about him becoming the heavyweight champion of the world. Francis isn’t a good guy. He plays the good guy – ‘I don’t understand the (English) language’ – so he seems like he’s a nice guy. He’s not. He’s just not a guy that I wanted to be in business with, period, end of story, whether he became the champion or not.”

As for the chances of White figuring out a way to have Jones and Ngannou fight each other, don’t count on it as long as Jones is in the UFC and White calls the shots.

Although the MMA world at large only really heard rumblings of a soured White-Ngannou working relationship in the months leading up to his departure from the UFC, White told MMA Junkie the bad vibes go back at least around seven years.

“We’ll never be in business together (again). I mean, you can tell: We don’t like each other,” White said. “And this goes way back. This goes back to before the first Stipe fight (at UFC 220 in Jaunary 2018). He pulled some sh*t before the first Stipe fight, and I said, ‘I’m done with this guy.’ And then Stipe beat the sh*t out of him – great night – and we never had a relationship after that.”

After his loss to Miocic, Ngannou lost to Lewis in mid-2018. White was publicly critical of him during the period of those two losses and said his ego got the best of him.

Later that year, Ngannou knocked out Curtis Blaydes in 45 seconds and won a bonus. He put away former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez in 26 seconds. He stopped former champ Junior dos Santos in 71 seconds. He knocked out Jairzinho Rozenstruik in 20 seconds to get a title shot with Miocic.

After he finished Miocic in the second round, he defended his title against Gane in Jaunary 2022, then left the promotion after his contract was up.

Ngannou’s backstory of his rise from poverty in Africa to to homeless on the streets of Paris before he discovered MMA is a famous part of MMA lore. In April, the 38-year-old suffered the tragic death of his 15-month-old son Kobe.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.

Max Holloway might have fought his last fight at 145 pounds.

The former featherweight champion had a chance to regain that title Saturday in the UFC 308 main event, but he instead suffered the first knockout loss of his storied career as he was defeated in the third round by Ilia Topuria.

Only two featherweights have scored wins over Holloway in the past decade, Topuria and Alexander Volkanovski, and Volkanovski was unable to finish Holloway despite the two battling for 75 minutes across three title fights. “Blessed” gave his take on the surprising finish at the evening’s post-fight press conference.

“I felt great,” Holloway said. “I was finding my groove. Saw it on the scoreboards after, I was kind of surprised, I thought I had at least one of them. The first round I know he took me down and at the end he had that takedown so, it is what it is, I felt good. Showing off my hands, I was landing, I was being fast, I think I had him surprised in there. Like I said, I was doing good until I wasn’t.”

“The first couple of rounds he landed a couple of left hooks,” Holloway added. “He took me down, he didn’t feel too strong, and you know, game of inches. Game of inches. He landed something that I found myself looking up from the ground.”

One thing Holloway wouldn’t do is blame the loss on a cut down to featherweight after competing at 155 pounds in his most recent bout. Holloway fought at lightweight in his most recent fight at UFC 300 this past April, when he won the “BMF” title in highlight-reel fashion after capping off a dominant performance against Justin Gaethje with a last-second knockout.

Even with the 145-pound weight cut still being manageable, Holloway thinks a return to lightweight could make sense going forward.

“I had the best ‘45 cut here, but what else is there to do?” Holloway said. “I had a couple of times to reclaim [the featherweight title], new guys coming up, that would be fun, but I think ‘55 looks more fun as fighting just more the caliber, everyone there and the names there, it would look really exciting to put my name in the mix.”

Holloway didn’t say who he’d like to fight at lightweight (when a third fight with Dustin Poirier was suggested, Holloway joked that he’d like to get one back but hasn’t had much luck against opponents who have already beaten him twice), but there are plenty of fan-friendly matchups that make sense for the 32-year-old veteran.

Whatever weight Holloway shows up at next, he doesn’t expect to fight again until mid-2025.

“We’ll sit down with the team, relax, there’s nothing needed to be rushing back right now,” Holloway said. “Probably try to come back summer, big July card in Vegas, do something, see what happens. [The 155-pound division] looks really good right now.”

ABU DHABI – Many viewers were surprised at what they heard when the official decision of his fight was read Saturday, but Rinat Fakhretdinov wasn’t.

Following his unanimous decision win over Carlos Leal at UFC 308, Fakhretdinov (23-1-1 MMA, 5-0-1 UFC) voiced his disagreement with the broadcast team that the judges got it wrong.

“Why were they surprised with the decision?” Fakhretdinov said to MMA Junkie and other reporters at his UFC 308 post-fight news conference. “… Really bad commentators. … First round was pretty close. It could’ve gone either way. I didn’t have any doubt the second or third round was mine. After your words, people will say again the Arabs bought the decision.”

According to MMA Decisions, 100 percent of voting media members scored the fight for Leal with more than 75 percent of viewers also scoring the fight for the Brazilian.

The court of public opinion is meaningless when it comes to the victory added to his win column. Fakhretdinov now rides a 23-fight unbeaten streak, the current longest in the promotion. Fakhretdinov thinks he’s ready for the best of the welterweight division and is eagerly awaiting the next call.

“It doesn’t matter,” Fakhretdinov said. “Anyone from the top 15, top 10, if you put in front of me will be the same. I will get the win. Maybe it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a hard win, but I’m going to win. … Even the day after tomorrow I can fight for the title if you give me the chance.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.

Video Details

Robert Whittaker wants fans to know you haven’t seen the last of him.

The former UFC middleweight champion came out on the wrong end of a nasty submission Saturday at UFC 308 as he had his jaw crushed by undefeated contender Khamzat Chimaev. It was just the second time in Whittaker’s legendary career that he lost via tap-out and the first time since 2011, well before his UFC stardom.

Afterwards, Whittaker released a statement on the result via Instagram.

“It’s a tough gig sometimes but that’s the business,” Whittaker wrote. “Big congratulations to Khamzat, he was the better man tonight and that’s all there is to it. I felt great, everything was on point and I was ready.

“My jaw is good, but my teeth were moved in. It’s a good excuse to fix them properly now. I’m disappointed, but I come back better from every setback and every challenge so this is no different.”

Whittaker had been working to earn another shot at the UFC middleweight title and entered Saturday on a two-fight win streak with convincing performances against Ikram Aliskerov and Paulo Costa. Now, the 33-year-old finds himself going back to the drawing board and needing some serious rest time after the loss to Chimaev.

See Whittaker’s unedited comments below:

Thank you everyone for all the love and support. It’s a tough gig sometimes but that’s the business. Big congratulations to Khamzat, he was the better man tonight and that’s all there is to it. I felt great, everything was on point and I was ready. My jaw is good, but my teeth were moved in. It’s a good excuse to fix them properly now haha. I’m disappointed, but I come back better from every setback and every challenge so this is no different. I want to thank my team and everyone who supported me to get here. Time to go spend time with the family for a bit. Be back soon

ABU DHABI – Geoff Neal stepped into the cage Saturday at UFC 308 and left with a win, but felt like he didn’t even fight.

In his welterweight prelim, Neal (16-6 MMA, 8-4 UFC) defeated former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos (32-17 MMA, 21-15 UFC) by first-round TKO due to knee injury. Neal was only hit twice.

“RDA is a legend, and I wish there would’ve been more a fight – especially because I wanted a bonus, too,” Neal told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a post-fight news conference. “I wish it was a little bit more. But it is what it is. Hopefully he heals up and comes back. It sucks to see a legend go out like that. … My leg is a little sore, but I want to get back in there. I’m trying to get back in there by December or January or February. I’m right back in the lab after this.”

Neal, 34, snapped a two-fight skid with the win. His ascent up the ladder toward gold has restarted. Given the fact he’s the last person to beat current champion Belal Muhammad, a narrative is there that has not previously been. Neal defeated Muhammad by unanimous decision in January 2019.

Could that expedite his journey to the top? Maybe, admits Neal, though he thinks he’ll reach the end location regardless of the duration it takes to get there.

“Honestly, I feel like I’m going to get there no matter what,” Neal said. “But I think it will go quicker if Belal does keep the belt.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.