Dana White was criticizing Ngannou left and right for his ‘bad management’ but the Cameroonian has been a trailblazer in finding sponsorships to undercut UFC.
Francis Ngannou will be wearing this timepiece from Jacob & Co. when he weighs in on Jan. 21, per a release.
It’s the Epix X Chrono and it retails for $50k. pic.twitter.com/S6cCpuZNGA
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 12, 2022
Ngannou first inked a new lucrative watch sponsorship and now he’s following that up with a crypto deal.
The sponsorship is a copromotion made possible by Cash App – mobile payment app from former Twitter Ceo Jack Dorsey led group. The app is primarily a payment app however it also allows users to buy bitcoin.
Thus far the app has been promoted by a number of prominent athletes and entertainers including Megan Thee Stallion and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Ngannou first made headlines saying he would take half of his purse for UFC 270 in bitcoin.
I believe bitcoin can empower people everywhere. So I’m excited to partner w/ @CashApp to take half my #UFC270 purse in bitcoin. I want to make bitcoin more accessible to my fans, so I’m giving out $300K in bitcoin! Follow @CashApp + drop your $cashtag w/ #PaidInBitcoin pic.twitter.com/8JEvJ1UYu1
— Francis Ngannou (@francis_ngannou) January 18, 2022
Parent company of Cash App (and Tidal) is now called Block. It is a financial services company co founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
Dorsey is a bitcoin maximalist – Bitcoin did not start with an ICO and hence is viewed as genuinely owned by the community. Satoshi’s tens of billions worth of holdings are untouched . Other cryptocurrencies enable the founders or early coin holders to get massive financial benefit from the network’s growth. Dorsey is skeptical about this kind of structure.
Ngannou is probably the biggest crypto enthusiast among fighters. Previously Ben Askren and Rory MacDonald promoted other crypto currencies in return for payments.
In addition to Ngannou it’s worth mentioning that UFC is also in on the crypto hype having scored a $175Â million deal to feature crypto.com on the UFC fighter shirts without any of that money reaching the fighters. One side note in this particular deal is the option for UFC fighters to make 50% from any NFT they launch together with UFC and crypto.com.
Ngannou is also a trailblazer in this department having sold an $580,000 worth of NFTs following his title fight back in March. The NFT was a collaboration with the artist Bosslogic.
