Renan Ferreira insists that he wasn’t offended by Tom Aspinall’s assessment of his skills as ‘not elite’.
The Brazilian knockout artist has at times seemed like the forgotten man in the tale of Francis Ngannou’s PFL debut. Despite winning the 2023 Global Season champion and standing at an intimidating 6’8 tall, he is viewed as a massive underdog as his rival continues his story.
And yesterday UFC interim heavyweight champion Aspinall completely dismissed him as a top player in the division. But he believes his workrate will prove any doubters wrong, and that he will prove his mettle on Saturday night.
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Tom Aspinall believes Renan Ferreira is not an elite heavyweight
There is an ongoing dispute around who holds the rightful claim to the UFC heavyweight championship. Francis Ngannou never lost his belt before leaving over a contract dispute, and Jon Jones proceeded to pick up the vacant title.
However, things began to complicate when Jones was forced out of his first defence against Stipe Miocic last November. Tom Aspinall stepped in and defeated Sergei Pavlovich for the interim belt, which it seems he is not going to get a chance to unify as the American claims he is retiring.
It all leads to a feeling that Ngannou is still the true champion at heavyweight in MMA. But Aspinall, speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, claimed that he couldn’t be considered now that he had moved over to PFL, where the competition isn’t as elite.
“I have a lot of respect for Francis, and I really appreciate his story,” Aspinall explained. “But it’s hard to debate right now [because] the guy he’s fighting is not elite and the guys he’ll be fighting in the future aren’t elite – it’s as simple as that, these aren’t the best guys in the world.
“The guy he’s fighting fought a friend of mine, a training partner of mine [called] Ante Delija last year and Ante just destroyed him in a minute or two. Just took him down, ground-and-pound, and stopped him in a minute; and now this guy’s fighting Francis Ngannou?
“The guy isn’t elite; yeah, he’s big, yeah, he’s powerful, and yeah, he can knock you out but he’s not an elite heavyweight… I’m not disrespecting him, but the elite guys aren’t in PFL, the elite guys are in the UFC.”
Renan Ferreira reacts to Tom Aspinall claiming he is not top ten
For his part, Renan Ferreira appears to be taking the criticism in his stride. He refused to be drawn into a war of words when asked about the comments by Bloody Elbow, and insisted that he isn’t offended by what was said.
Instead, he feels his work in the cage will show his level, saying: “I saw some bits of the interview and he can say whatever he wants, everybody sees what I am doing. All these knockouts, all these great performances that I’m delivering.
“So I don’t need to speak too much about it, I need to let my work show and speak for me. It didn’t offend me at all, I know the work I’m doing, so why would it offend me? I’m proud of that work I’m doing.”
Francis Ngannou hits back at Tom Aspinall’s jibe
And as far as Ngannou is concerned, Aspinall is completely wrong in his assessment. He believes that Ferreira is one of the top heavyweights in the world, as evidenced by his winning the PFL tournament and defeating Bellator champion Ryan Bader last time out.
“That’s just his opinion,” Ngannou told Bloody Elbow exclusively when asked about the Brit’s comments. Why should I be caring about people’s opinions, the only opinion that matters here is mine. My opinion is that Renan Ferreira is a very tough opponent.
“Maybe in MMA if I have to compare the challenge that he’s bringing to someone it might be Stipe Miocic. People can claim different things, but I think if they put all the heavyweights in the room and closed the door, I believe Renan Ferreira would be among the guys surviving.”
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