This Monday, Francis Ngannou admitted that he feels there is still something to ‘claim’ in the world of Boxing, despite his recent loss to Anthony Joshua.
Francis Ngannou suffered his second boxing defeat just a few weeks ago when he was brutally knocked out by British heavyweight, Anthony Joshua.
Before the bout, the PFL announced that his next MMA fight would come against 2023 PFL heavyweight champion, Renan Ferreira at some point later this year. Despite that, after suffering such a devastating knockout loss, it left the fight with Ferreira unclear, especially in terms of timescale.
The former UFC heavyweight champion appeared on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, where he spoke about the loss to Joshua as well as what he thinks could come next in his combat sports career.
Francis Ngannou wants to reclaim respect in boxing
When asked what he thinks will come next either MMA or Boxing, Ngannou answered: “Right now, I don’t know but I started to feel like boxing is now owing me something that I have to claim.” he admitted.
‘The Predator’s’ first outing in the boxing ring was a far more successful one, despite also being a loss. He took Tyson Fury to a decision where he was very narrowly beaten. The performance he put on in that fight led to many people in the boxing world giving him a lot of respect.
That is now something Ngannou feels he must reclaim.
“The way that this fight (Joshua fight) happened it’s not the way that it was supposed to or should’ve so I think now I need to do boxing to claim something, to claim my respect, to claim my dignity, to claim everything.
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“It depends on the time frame of what’s happened. Maybe it could be MMA first but I don’t know.” he added.
When asked who he would like to face in just his third boxing fight, the 37-year-old named Tyson Fury, stating that there are ‘question marks’ there regarding their first meeting.
“I think Tyson Fury is still there, even on fight week he was always around teasing me, he was in places that I didn’t know what he was doing there, teasing me, there is a question mark there.” Ngannou said.
Although ‘The Predator’ hinted that it may be another boxing fight next, he still gets ‘excited’ about the potential return to MMA, because it is something he is ‘comfortable’ with.
“I still get excited about the idea of fighting in MMA. MMA now is like, not the easier one but it’s the one I’m used to. I know in any fight you can lose but at least in MMA there are a lot of things I understand and things I can control, unlike boxing which is the wild-west. It’s a little more comfortable, to be honest.” he explained.
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