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Professional Fighters League (PFL) president Ray Sefo says discussions with Francis Ngannou are heading in the right direction.
Since splitting with the UFC after failing to come to terms on a new contract this past January, the former UFC heavyweight champion has received offers from several premiere promotions. Of the offers, Ngannou recently revealed the three that he would consider.
“If I have to pick another MMA organization to go to, I think it’s between this three organizations: PFL, Bellator and ONE Championship,” said Ngannou on his official YouTube channel. “Which one would I pick? Very complicated. But the reason why I would pick one of those would be because of what they are offering, the structure and the vision that they have for the sport, for the fighters.
“Also the project that they have in Africa,” continued Ngannou. “I think those would be one of the most important factor that I will base on to make a decision.”
Ray Sefo shares positive update on Ngannou signing
To Sefo, PFL is the perfect promotion for Ngannou to join, especially since they seem willing to accommodate all of his requests.
“We’ve had a few meetings with Francis and those discussions are still going on,” said Sefo in a post-fight scrum after PFL 1 this past Friday (video provided by MMA Junkie). “Obviously, there’s a few other things he also wants to pursue which is boxing and he knows where we stand with it too so, you know, it’s all positive should I say, right?”
Should he join PFL, Ngannou has a few options to consider as far as his competition is concerned. He could compete with the rest of his heavyweight counterparts in the promotion’s Regular Season. Or, the ‘Predator’ could go the Super Fight route (à la Jake Paul), which gets him on pay-per-view and earns 50 percent of its revenue.
If it were up to him, though, Sefo would prefer Ngannou go with the former option.
“To be quite honest, I would love to have him in the season,” said Sefo. “But again, it’s no surprise he’s a pay-per-view kind of guy, and so I think that’s kind of up to him where we go with that. But listen, if he decides that he wants to be in the season, I’d love to have him in the season.”
When was the last time Francis Ngannou fought?
In his most recent fight, Ngannou successfully defended the UFC heavyweight championship by unanimous decision against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 over a year ago. Shortly after, the Cameroonian fighter underwent surgery on his knee to repair a damaged ACL and MCL, which saw him sidelined for the rest of 2022.
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