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

UFC president Dana White says him not putting the heavyweight title belt on Francis Ngannou after UFC 270 last weekend had nothing to do with «disrespect.»

White addressed the post-fight situation in a fan Q&A on Wednesday night with interviewer Laura Sanko on ESPN+.

White did not put the belt on Ngannou in the cage following Ngannou's successful title defense over Ciryl Gane last Saturday, as is customary. Instead, UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard did the honors. White also did not attend the postfight news conference like he normally would.

Many speculated that White did not do those things because Ngannou and the UFC are embroiled in messy contract negotiations. 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 did not go into detail about what he had to do in the back that prevented him from returning for the main event.

«For anybody that thinks I was showing any kind of disrespect towards Francis — I saw Francis all week, you idiots,» White told Sanko. «I shook his hand, I said hi to him. I was out there for the staredowns, the whole thing.»

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

White said in the interview that he has missed pay-per-view main events before, referencing UFC 199 in June 2016. On that night, White was backstage having reporter Ariel Helwani and other then-members of the MMAFighting.com staff removed from The Forum in Los Angeles and pulling their UFC media credentials because of a scoop Helwani broke earlier in the evening.

Ngannou and the UFC have been at odds over his contract for almost a year.