Letting Francis Ngannou walk is malpractice. But will it matter to the UFC?

When Francis Ngannou knocked out Stipe Miocic to become the UFC heavyweight champion in March 2021, it signaled that a new era was upon us. The promising Cameroonian who mesmerized fans with his brutal power had finally reached the throne. And even though heavyweight is the most volatile weight class in mixed martial arts, it felt like Ngannou would sit on that throne for a while. With better wrestling defense and more composure in the stand-up department (as seen in the Miocic victory), the sport's biggest knockout artist was seriously improving the fundamentals of his skill set. That was a recipe for success for Ngannou - and headaches for the rest of the division.

Less than two years later, Ngannou is no longer the UFC heavyweight champion. But it's not because someone defeated him. In fact, he's not even a UFC fighter.

What in the world happened?

The first sign of discord between Ngannou and UFC president Dana White was in 2018, months after Ngannou fell short in his first title fight with Miocic. White put Ngannou on blast for having an "ego." The relationship continued to sour when Ngannou won the title. The promotion created an interim belt just three months after Ngannou beat Miocic because Ngannou wanted a bit more time off and the UFC needed to fill a pay-per-view slot. Animosity in the relationship reached a boiling point after Ngannou fought out his contract in a win over Ciryl Gane in January 2022, setting up an unprecedented showdown with the promotion - with free agency potentially at the end of the tunnel - as the two sides worked to come to terms on a new deal.

Twelve months into the UFC versus Ngannou saga, negotiations halted - for good. White sat down at the first postfight press conference of 2023 on Saturday and announced that the promotion had split with Ngannou - and therefore stripped him of the heavyweight title - after the now-former champion declined a lucrative offer to re-sign with the UFC.

Ngannou era over. Just like that.

This - Ngannou leaving to test the market and likely make a boatload of money somewhere else - is what happens when you astronomically mishandle someone's career. Ngannou looks like an action figure, owns otherworldly knockout power and a bunch of highlights, and has an incredible life story. He looks exactly the way an MMA or boxing promotion should want its heavyweight champion to look. He is the definition of the baddest man on the planet. Winning the title in 2021 should have been the start of Ngannou's rise to mainstream superstardom. He had that kind of potential as heavyweight champion. Instead, the UFC turned it into an all-time fumbling of the bag.

Nowadays, no fighter - not even Conor McGregor - is bigger than the UFC brand. The company is putting up record profits with its top stars largely absent. In that regard, the UFC doesn't need Ngannou. The promotion will likely carry on fine without him, and it will promote someone else as the supposed new "baddest man" - either Gane or Jon Jones, who are scheduled to meet for the vacant heavyweight title at UFC 285 on March 4. The machine keeps going.

But for a company that prides itself on housing the world's best fighters, letting Ngannou walk is, at the very least, a bad look. It shows that the UFC cares less about talent than it wants you to think. This is the consensus No. 1 heavyweight in the world; the UFC's fifth-ranked pound-for-pound male fighter (he's still on the list as of this writing); a champion in his prime. You should do whatever it takes to have Ngannou on your roster.

While there have always been elite talents competing outside the UFC, from Patricio "Pitbull" Freire in Bellator to Bibiano Fernandes in ONE Championship, none have been at Ngannou's level. For the first time since the prime of Fedor Emelianenko in the 2000s, the best fighter in the sport's marquee weight class isn't on the UFC roster. That's truly wild.

Though it'll probably be smooth sailing for the UFC (after all, it has 600-some other fighters on its roster), letting Ngannou go could hurt the promotion's business more than we think. His departure is a lot different - and will have more of an impact - than past-their-primes Rory MacDonald or Anthony Pettis jumping ship. Sure, Ngannou is not the box-office draw that McGregor or Jones is, but he is among the handful of MMA fighters who can sell pay-per-views at all. This suddenly gives a UFC competitor like the PFL - which recently launched its own pay-per-view division and now has Jake Paul under its banner - or Bellator a chance to succeed in the pay-per-view market for once. Bringing the No. 1 heavyweight aboard is a massive opportunity for a rival promotion. And it might come back to bite the UFC.

Everyone is trying to figure out if Ngannou "won" or if the UFC "won." But it's not that simple. The answer could be both and it could be neither. Ngannou wanted better treatment from the UFC - and a deal that gave him more freedom to pursue other opportunities, like a boxing match - and if the UFC wasn't going to give him that, he wanted out. In that sense, Ngannou got what he wanted. He won. He fought out his deal, became a free agent, and ultimately got past the UFC's restrictive contracts, showing other fighters that it's possible.

On the other hand, Ngannou didn't really beat the UFC machine: It didn't meet his terms, and he escaped. In that sense, White and Co. also won, because they showed other fighters that the promotion won't budge. The UFC's still boss.

For this to be a slam dunk for Ngannou, he has to prove that leaving was worth it. Whether it's the Tyson Fury fight; signing with the PFL, Bellator, or ONE Championship; participating in an exhibition bout in Rizin FF; or, hell, even doing a bare-knuckle fight ... Ngannou has to get paid, and he has to show off all the freedom he's gotten outside of the UFC.

Of course, it's only been two days since the UFC and the baddest man on the planet separated. Ngannou hasn't even spoken publicly about the situation yet. This is still fresh, and it's impossible to say for sure what all of it means, particularly because there's nothing to compare it to. BJ Penn was the only other fighter to leave the UFC to go elsewhere as champion, but that was almost 20 years ago. The landscape is much different now. So buckle up.