Francis Ngannou might have made a triumphant return to MMA with a first-round KO to claim the PFL Heavyweight Super Fights Championship, but ‘The Predator’ still has one eye on the boxing ring.
The former UFC champion shocked the world when he dropped Tyson Fury in their 2023 showdown; but couldn’t keep that momentum going as he was badly knocked out by Anthony Joshua just five months later – now, there’s a priority push for one of those two rematches.
Francis Ngannou distances himself from potential Anthony Joshua rematch
Between Joshua, Fury, and countless other superstars competing across both the boxing ring and MMA cage, there are plenty of potential next opponents out there for Francis Ngannou.
Whilst ‘The Predator’ does indeed have various available options, there are certain fights that he would be cautious about accepting after experiencing some dubious actions behind the scenes.
“A rematch with Joshua? I felt very off and not comfortable in that fight,” Ngannou told Second’s Out earlier this week: “It’s something that could happen, but what I do know for sure is I want the rematch with [Tyson] Fury.
“I’m not a conspiracy theorist but I didn’t like the Joshua fight. Things weren’t right, and if it would be the same scenario, I’m not interested – something unfair definitely happened.
“I don’t have the full picture, but I have seen myself what wasn’t right. I was in the locker room for almost four hours, which is not something that happens, so just from there.”
Ngannou had previously stated that “a lot of tricks” were played on him in the lead-up to that heavyweight showdown with Joshua – “sneaky stuff” from those behind the scenes which caused him to be frustrated and/or fatigued by fight night.
According to the MMA juggernaut, those tricks included leaving him without transport when out-and-about during fight week, and purposefully making him arrive to the arena several hours early while Joshua arrived suspiciously right on time for the main event.
“It’s a trick that they have in boxing, they have a lot of tricks… I didn’t know how deep the problem was until I got in the final set, then I’m like ‘Okay this is serious’ but then it was too late… I was sleeping, I was in the locker room warming up and falling asleep.”
‘The Predator’ sets his sights on Tyson Fury after ‘close fight’ with Usyk
Following Oleksandr Usyk’s second consecutive victory over Tyson Fury last weekend, Ngannou remains keen to secure a rematch against ‘The Gypsy King’.
“What I want to see now is Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou,” he told Pro Boxing Fans: “That’s all that matters for me.”
The Ukrainian was able to secure the unanimous decision, 116-112 on all three judges’ scorecard, although Ngannou saw that fight much closer than those totals suggest.
“I think the fight was pretty close… I would have scored the fight closer than that. Maybe Usyk still wins. I mean, at the end of the fight I wasn’t sure that anybody is the winner because everybody could have been the winner. From my scorecard, it was closer than that.”
Ngannou also took issue with the use of an AI judge to help score the bout, claiming that whilst the tool “might be intelligent, [it] doesn’t understand the sport properly.
“It’s a man sport, it’s not a machine sport. I think AI is still, regardless of everything, it’s still a machine that operates automatically… I don’t think AI has all the specifics or the data to score a boxing match today.”
Who would you like to see Francis Ngannou fight next? Would you recommend another quick venture into the boxing ring, or should ‘The Predator’ stick to MMA from here on out?
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