Francis Ngannou signs with PFL

The big news in the MMA world today was that former UFC Champion Francis Ngannou has ended his free agency and announced he has joined the PFL, Professional Fighters League.  With the announcement several details of his new deal were shared with the public.  In addition to his fighting partnership Ngannou is also to serve on a fighter board of advisor and become a chairman for PFL Africa.

Further details included the number of fights to be between 2 and 3 with guarantees of a “high 7 figure” purse for each fight and a split of the events net profits.  In exchange for serving as a brand ambassador Ngannou received a signing bonus or salary and secured the right to have his own sponsors when he competes with a non exclusive boxing clause in his contract and no championship/exclusive negotiation period.

While many of the MMA community was excited to hear about the fighter signing, not everyone was thrilled including former World Series of Fighting CFO Vince Hesser who went to linkn in a post on PFL “founder” Donn Davis page which has since been deleted.  Former WSOF owners issued a cease and desist following the release of the news of Ngannou and the PFL plans to expand into Africa in order to protect their agreement in the settled PFL lawsuit which gave WSOF Global exclusive fights in Africa.