The rarest of situations came to pass on Saturday when UFC president Dana White announced that Francis Ngannou , the promotion’s reigning heavyweight champion, had parted ways with the company, unlikely to ever return. The development cleared the path for White to book a vacant title bout between Jon Jones and Ciryl Gane as the main event for UFC 285 , which takes place March 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. As the UFC celebrates the 30th anniversary of its existence in 2023, we can only point to one previous instance where this has happened: B.J. Penn left the organization as welterweight champion in 2004 because of a contract dispute, but he eventually found his way back and spent another decade-plus fighting in the octagon
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