Francis Ngannou sympathized with Jon Jones and other UFC fighters during the press conference for his comeback fight in May.Ngannou will fight Philipe Lins on the undercard of Ronda Rousey versus Gina Carano streaming on Netflix on May 16, marking his first fight since leaving PFL, with which he had just the one fight against Renan Ferreira in 2024, which had been his landing ground after leaving UFC as the Heavyweight Champion in 2022.Jones vacated the Heavyweight title last year when he announced his retirement from the sport, but had since said that he was in negotiations to return at the White House card in June. Dana White said this was untrue, and that prompted Jones to maintain that negotiations had happened, he was "lowballed," and asked for his release.Ngannou had previously said on social media that Jones deserved his payday and offered him a conversation should he get his UFC release. But he also addressed the situation during the MVP press conference."You know, I think three or four years ago, I was saying this out loud and I'll still say this. Not only to Jon Jones, but everyone out there probably in the same situation," Ngannou said of the situation. "Because I think most of them are in the same situation. We are not employees, we are independent contractors, and then we should be able to get what we deserve and if we don't we will have a right to walk away and go look at other options."Ngannou continued to say that there is a pressure now to choose between financial security and freedom, "Because thing now is there is always contracts tying people up, and then they can get free, and then you want to set free and then they muscle you up and low ball you. But I'm happy I'm out of that."
