Dana White says no disrespect to Francis Ngannou with postfight absence from Octagon

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UFC president Dana White says he didn't put the title belt on Francis Ngannou because of disrespect.

White talked about the fight situation in a fan Q&A on Wednesday night.

White did not put the belt on Ngannou in the cage after he defended his title. Mick Maynard was the UFC's matchmaker. White did not attend the news conference he usually does.

Many people thought that White didn't do those things because of the contract negotiations between the UFC and Ngannou. On Wednesday, White said that was not the case, explaining that he had something to deal with backstage and was not able to make it back to the Octagon in time. White didn't say what he had to do to prevent him from returning for the main event.

White told Sanko that he saw Francis all week and that he didn't show disrespect to him. I was there for the whole thing.

White attended the prefight news conference and the ceremonial weigh-ins, facing the fighters off on stage for both events.

In the interview, White mentioned UFC 199 in June of 2016 as the last pay-per-view main event he missed. The MMAFighting.com staff was removed from the Forum in Los Angeles and their media credentials were pulled because of a scoop they had published earlier in the evening.

The UFC and Ngannou have been at odds for almost a year. Ngannou would have been a free agent if he had lost. He remains under the UFC contract for a period of one year or three fights, whichever happens first. Ngannou wants to have the ability to box written into his UFC contract, which has not been done before.

Ngannou wants to become a free agent by not fighting for the entire year. In an interview on The MMA Hour on Monday, Ngannou said the UFC threatened to sue his agent, Marquel Martin, just hours before his fight. Ngannou was still under the UFC contract when Martin talked about him going into boxing.

White praised the champion for using his wrestling and grappling to overtake Gane after being down on the scorecards. Ngannou is known for his punching power.

White said that nobody expected Francis to come in and wrestle.

According to Martin, Ngannou will be out for at least nine months after he needs surgery to repair his knee.

White told Sanko that he would like to have Ngannou defend against Jon Jones. White said that it was a big fight and that it was possible to get it done.