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Eddie Hearn has said he will likely reach out to Francis Ngannou after signing reigning UFC Heavyweight Champion, Tom Aspinall, to Matchroom Talent Agency. 

Hearn announced on Thursday that Aspinall was the inaugural signing of his new venture, a move that was always going to draw attention. Especially with Dana White having signed former Matchroom fighter Conor Benn for his Zuffa Boxing promotion, thus commencing verbal back-and-forth in the media between the two business rivals. 

On Friday it was announced that Ngannou had departed PFL, marking the end of a run that only yielded one fight, and the question was posed to Hearn as to whether he would consider approaching the former UFC Heavyweight Champion. 

“We’ll probably reach out to Francis,” he told IFL TV, before revealing Aspinall’s signing had drawn further interest from within UFC. “I mean I’ve had, I wouldn’t say a dozen, but I’ve had over half a dozen, quite big name, UFC fighters contact me in the last 12 hours. I’m not going to sign all of them. But they’re fascinated by this, because they feel like they’re not getting what they deserve, and that will be the job of the agency to do that.”

Hearn added that the deal with Aspinall was a two-year one. 

UFC fighter pay has long been a topic of debate, specifically in the case of Ngannou as he departed the promotion following a dispute over pay. The conversation reared its head again with Zuffa’s signing of Benn, reported as a $15 million deal, with Michael “Venom” Page describing it as disheartening, and TKO’s Mark Shapiro promising that there would be increases to pay in the future.