Francis Ngannou to convert half of UFC 270 pay to Bitcoin

UFC star Francis Ngannou joins the likes of Aaron Rodgers and Odell Beckham Jr as high profile athletes converting their salary into Bitcoin.

The heavyweight champion headlines UFC 270 on Saturday January 22 against Ciryl Gane in a unification title bout.

MMA journalist Ariel Helwani broke the news on Twitter as he stated Ngannou’s new partnership with Cash App will enable him to convert half of his purse into Bitcoin.

Ngannou himself took to Twitter on his thoughts to convert half of his purse this past Friday and has seemingly gone ahead with his thoughts.

“[I’ve] been talking with my family and friends in the crypto space,” he tweeted.

“Bitcoin is huge in Africa and I’m thinking of taking half my fight purse in it, Bitcoin is the future and I’m a believer.”

The champion becomes the first UFC athlete to convert part of his pay into cryptocurrency as his Cash App partnership enables him to give away $300,000 worth of Bitcoin to his fans, a similar move made by both Odell Beckham Jr and Aaron Rodgers.

UFC has already been entrenched in cryptocurrency, penning a deal with Crypto.com to become its official cryptocurrency partner and now has one of its prized assets in Ngannou making that step into the crypto world.