Mike Tyson says Francis Ngannou’s purse for UFC 270 would only have covered his training expenses, as contract dispute with the Dana White and co. continues

Mike Tyson claimed Francis Ngannou's most recent purse would have only covered his training expenses when the former undisputed heavyweight champion was fighting.

Ngannou earned $600,000 from his most recent outing against Ciryl Gane, when he won by decision despite entering the fight with a knee injury, as he retained his status as the UFC heavyweight champion.

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Speaking about his contract situation with Israel Adesanya, on his podcast, Tyson was asked to put himself in Ngannou's shoes.

"Mike, imagine at the height of your career, you're fighting and you're getting paid the equivalent of $600k to fight. That would be atrocious."

And the 55-year-old agreed. "Listen, that'd be my training expenses," he replied.

"People would pay me to do commercials and stuff and I would make sure they paid me in advance but I might not show up or something.";

Tyson is one of the highest earning sports stars in history having reportedly made around $400 million during his career that spanned 20-years.

He regularly took home over $30 million a fight at the height of his popularity, taking on Evander Holyfield, Frank Bruno and most notably against Lennox Lewis, which was the highest grossing pay-per-view ever at the time, generating a reported $106.9 million.

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Ngannou has been embroiled in a contract dispute with the UFC for a while now and said he wants to be taken seriously.

UFC president, Dana White, was asked by talkSPORT what the sticking point was in negotiations and he responded: "Good question. I don’t know the answer. We’ll keep hammering this thing out until we figure this thing out or don’t.”

Should Ngannou fail to come to an agreement with the UFC, he has the very lucrative option of taking a crossover fight with the WBC heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury.

Both men have expressed a willingness to fight each other, with Ngannou saying: “It can be in a phonebooth or wherever, that fight will happen.

"Obviously he will not come to the MMA, that’s not something that could happen. He would get killed.”