UFC President Dana White announced on Saturday that the promotion has released heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou after the two sides could not reach a contract agreement.

In addition, Jon "Bones" Jones will now make his heavyweight debut on March 4 in Las Vegas for the vacant UFC heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane. White also announced that Jones has signed an eight-fight deal with UFC.

White had more comments on Ngannou, including thoughts on negotiations regarding the heavyweight fight that never happened between the now ex-champ and Jones.

Ngannou is still working his way back to the Octagon after suffering a torn ACL and MCL before his UFC 270 win against Gane in January 2022. However, there was public hope earlier this week that a fight between him and Jones could still go down in March.

Eric Nicksick, Ngannou's head coach, ballparked the probability of a Jones-Ngannou fight happening then.

"I think it's 50-50, to be honest with you, when you're talking business and timeline," Nicksick told Mike Heck of MMA Fighting.

"I'm confident from what I saw from Francis a couple of weeks ago that if we had to be ready for March, I think we can get him ready, but I think it is cutting it a little bit short because he had to go back home and renew his visa."

A Jones-Ngannou fight won't be happening now, but numerous MMA analysts sided with Ngannou upon his departure.

The 36-year-old Ngannou is 17-3 (12-2 UFC) in his professional career, with 12 knockouts and four submissions. He's won six straight fights, including a second-round KO over Stipe Miocic, which earned him the heavyweight belt at UFC 260 in March 2021. Ngannou won by unanimous decision over Gane in Jan. 2022 at UFC 270.