Marquel Martin has been managing UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou for a few years and has always been ready to go to war for his client. He's even butted heads with the UFC brass in order to get his client the best deals.
Francis Ngannou has said in the past that he didn't want to sign a contract extension because it wasn't financially secure and the heavyweight champion wanted to be fairly compensated. Something that isn't easy for UFC fighters to negotiate without having good leverage.
His manager Marquel Martin recently talked about negotiating with Dana White and what that was like. He also spoke about what it's going to be like to negotiate a new deal with UFC for Francis Ngannou.
“I would say from a career standpoint, like I'd be lying if I wouldn't say that this is probably the biggest contract that I'll have to negotiate, right? Because he's such a high-profile athlete,” Marquel Martin said on The Lucas Grandsire Podcast. “Right. It's like, you know, who is negotiating? You know, on behalf of Muhammad Ali, that was probably stressful, or Mike Tyson, that was probably stressful or, I mean, Rich Paul, I'm sure his first deal with Lebron [James] was probably super stressful. So that's just a part of the business that like, I welcome. I like that challenge. I'm up for that challenge. And when I can, I wish I was in person, so I can look you in the eye and just tell you that there's not a single manager in MMA on this planet that has spent more time and effort thinking about one fucking contract in the, in the history of the sport. I'll just tell you flat out. But again, there's so much stacked against me and so much stacked against Francis, right. It's like, hey, you know if you're a betting person, the odds are in UFC favor. Right? Because it's built that way. It's designed that way. Like, again, I'm gonna be honest with you.
“But, you know, little old me, right? Like, there's a lot of other great managers in the space and big managers and high profile managers. I don't care to compete against them, I don't care to aspire to be them. Like, I just want to be me. Like I said earlier, I just want to do the best job that I can. And I'll tell you one thing that not short of, you know, unless they try to do something to interfere, tortious interference, we will be okay. I mean that's kind of the only thing it's like, there's probably people like, could be fans, could be other managers, could be the UFC themselves, right? Like, from that standpoint, I can't control what happens on that. Right? I just know that unless there's a legal matter at play, that's the only thing I would be concerned about, you know, if there's real tortious interference, but again, there's no regulatory body… Francis and I have a great relationship. He's like a brother to me. I'll do anything for for my clients, just because that's the kind of individual that I try to be. I'm not perfect. I make a lot of fucking mistakes. Even I mean, me and Francis even talking about like, sometimes like, damn, I was too emotional on that.”
“But this contract, when his contract is up, I want him to be with UFC.”
People make this huge misconception, it's all about free agency. It's all about taking your fighter elsewhere to make more money, no, like, you can make good money with the UFC, and get a ton of fucking exposure. Right again, like, there's no combat promotion that promotes better than UFC. However, I will say the caveat to that is, you got to think about if they decide to shine that light on you or not. You see, I'm saying what I mean. There's countless of other fighters, right? Let's forget about Francis for a second, right? When Sean O'Malley won in the contender series. What happened? Right, he got the Snoop Dogg thing, which is cool. That went viral. But that could have easily phased out. It was the machine of UFC. Right? And you couple that with who Sean O'Malley is and he leverages it and was wise enough to leverage that and just roll with it. Right? He's so big now. I mean, Khamzat Chimaev, in MMA world. He's massive. In the sports world, no one knows him.”
“No one knows him. But who made him massive? UFC and the machine, right? You will have to ask yourself, you know, media or fan or whatever. Are they promoting Francis? Is that what they are they doing? Could they be doing better? Should they be doing less? Are they overhyping, Francis? Right? There was a day that I remember. You know, Francis hits like a Ford Escort. Right now, Francis has hasn't been inactive. Right? Francis has been winning last time I checked. So what's the difference? So it's just a function of terms if the terms are good. Again, I work! I work… let me also break this down for people. It's like the agent, the manager, the representation, I work for my client. I work, we work for the client, not the other way around. It's not how this business works. Again, Rich Paul works for LeBron period. If Francis says no, then guess what the final answer is? No. I can say ‘hey, but I did all this data does this research. We did this, we did this.' At the end of the day, the client makes the decision. You know what I mean? And it's my job, it's our job as representation to put them in the best position to make the best decision for their career. That's where I feel like, as of today, I'm knocking on wood, Francis is in a position to do so. Right. But of course, at the end of day he has to win, you know, he has to win. He has to be wanted and needed, but I think thatFrancis has such an amazing future ahead of him and I'm just honored to kind of be a part of the ride, to be honest.”
It's clear that Marquel Martin and Francis Ngannou want to stay in the UFC. It's also clear that both men want what's best for the heavyweight champion's career.
Francis Ngannou is currently scheduled to take on Ciryl Gane at UFC 270. The bout will be Ngannou's first title defense as UFC champion.
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