A year ago it looked like Francis Ngannou was fumbling the bag by exiting the UFC in search of a mythical big money boxing superfight.
Now, on the verge of his second such superfight in five months, you gotta admit that Franny was right to bet on himself. “The Predator” already took Tyson Fury to a controversial split decision that many feel he won. He’s set to face Anthony Joshua in March. And he’s already looking ahead to complete the holy trinity of heavyweight boxing opponents.
“I’m here for the boxing career and there I have a lot of challenges, a lot of names,” Ngannou told Sky Sports. “For example, the top three guys that I’ve always had are Fury, Joshua and Wilder. Wilder better get it together because I’m not done, I want that name on my record.”
When everything was up in the air, Deontay Wilder was the only top heavyweight giving Ngannou the time of day. He showed up at a PFL event and teased the possibility of a two-fight series in MMA and boxing. He was down to travel to Africa if that was what Ngannou wanted to do. As someone who was having similar troubles signing a big fight, “The Bronze Bomber” seemed very willing to work out a deal.
“Two months ago, we were talking about fighting Deontay Wilder in the PFL,” Ngannou said. “The landscape can change quick. Everything is possible.”
Saudi Arabia scooped up Wilder before a Ngannou fight could come together and put him on a collision course with Joshua. Things went off the rails when a strangely non-aggressive Deontay lost a set-up fight against Joseph Parker. No biggie for Saudi Arabia: they called on Francis Ngannou to step into Wilder’s spot against Joshua, securing Francis’ second eight figure payday in boxing.
When the money’s that good, it’s no surprise Ngannou isn’t interested in talking MMA right now.
“It’s a boxing career, it’s not an MMA career now,” he told Sky Sports. “We are here talking about my boxing career. In my MMA career, I got to the point that is everyone’s dream. I was MMA champion. There are some great fights to do in MMA but there’s not a new challenge, something exciting in MMA.”
It’ll be up to the PFL to figure out something exciting for “The Predator” to do in MMA. Even after the Bellator acquisition, there’s still very little star power in their heavyweight division and nothing on the scale of what Ngannou is doing in boxing right now.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
