Daniel Cormier, Dan Hardy talk Dana White’s attitude toward boxing, Francis Ngannou 5ye2a

In light of Francis Ngannou’s boxing debut against Tyson Fury, former UFC double champion Daniel Cormier has discussed promotion boss Dana White’s attitude toward its result.

While losing by a thin margin to Fury, “The Predator” delivered an unexpected performance, knocking down the BWC heavyweight champion and leaving a mark on his face. Many fans and analysts alike believe that Ngannou should have been the winner.

“There’s this idea that the UFC is upset that Francis Ngannou did what he did. Why would they be? Francis Ngannou uplifted the entire sport last weekend. Francis Ngannou went out there as a mixed martial arts world champion, fought the lineal heavyweight champion of the world, and lost by split decision,” Cormier told ESPN.

White had previously dubbed Ngannou’s maiden 10-round boxing fight a “stupid” waste of time, energy and money. While he did not watch the bout, he praised Ngannou for the stint.

“I didn’t see the fight, but the fact that he went 10 rounds is unbelievable,” he said in an interview with Donald Trump Jr.

That said, the UFC might continue to keep their fighters from entering professional boxing. Former UFC welterweight Dan Hardy highlighted White had had mixed opinions concerning UFC fighters challenging boxers.

White allowed Conor McGregor to fight Floyd Mayweather in the ring on August 26, 2017. However, Hardy stressed that White considered McGregor “quite special,” which was why he had been allowed to explore boxing. White has shown the opposite attitude for other UFC fighters out of fear of having them outmatched.

“We got the [Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor] thing and that was a one-off. I do feel like the UFC in particular, like Dana’s a boxing fan. I think he was intrigued by that because he felt Conor was something quite special, and he might be able to just do something as well as obviously they made a bunch of cash out of it,” Hardy told the MMA Hour.

“If you look at somebody like a Sean O’Malley or a Jon Jones, he doesn’t want to take that risk. You when he took Chuck Liddell over to PRIDE and ‘Rampage’ [Quinton Jackson] beat him up, that kind of burned him, I feel. He’s been very, very reluctant to risk breaking his toys in other people’s promotions. I think he’s going to do everything he can to stop people from doing it.”