‘You Can Never Erase Francis Ngannou’s History From The UFC'
Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC
Israel Adesanya plans to become the second three-time Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion in the promotion’s history at UFC 305 this weekend (Sat., Aug. 17, 2024).
The most dominant Middleweight champion since Brazil’s Anderson Silva has been none other than “The Last Stylebender,” Adesanya. Throughout his 27-fight career (24-3), Adesanya accumulated five total title defenses across two reigns as champion and could add more depending on if he dethrones Dricus du Plessis in his upcoming bout.
At the height of Adesanya’s power, he wasn’t the only champion from his native continent of Africa. Alongside him stood Heavyweight and Welterweight titleholders Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman. While Usman lost his title via a fifth round knockout to Leon Edwards in August 2022 (watch highlights), Ngannou parted ways with the promotion amid a contract negotiation breakdown in January 2023. Therefore, he gave up his title and signed with Professional Fighters League (PFL), making him an essential afterthought when UFC brings up its heaviest weight class. It also doesn't help when promos are edited like the embedded video above.
“Francis, Kamaru, 100 percent these are guys that we have paved the way for people like Dricus,” Adesanya told ESPN. “We have paved the way for a whole continent to be able to dream. To be able to know, ‘Man, I can get there.’ I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Look, it doesn’t end with us. It doesn’t even end with Dricus. Wait for the next generation of African fighters.
“You can never erase Francis’ history from the UFC. I’ll say that,” he continued. “It’s part of history. We need to fix this. I don’t like that. I don’t like the fact that we’re trying just to cut out a really important part of history. It’s silly. But we’ll fix that. That’s for later on.”
If Adesanya defeats du Plessis at UFC 305, he’ll join only Randy Couture as the promotion’s lone three-time champions.
MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 305 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches at 6:30 p.m. ET, followed by the remaining undercard balance on ESPN/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC 305: “Du Plessis vs. Adesanya” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here. For the updated and finalized UFC 305 fight card and PPV lineup click here.
