The former UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou surprised the MMA community when he decided to sign with Professional Fighters League. Multiple MMA organizations like ONE Championship hoped to sign Ngannou, but PFL got an exclusive MMA deal with him. The new contract allows him to compete in boxing, guarantees a high 7 figure salary per fight, and his sponsors in the PFL cage.
However, one of the conditions in “The Predator” contract that caught people’s attention was that his opponents would make a minimum of $2 million to face him. While it would be a high-risk fight to face a knockout artist, potential PFL opponents for Ngannou are likely to make more money in one fight than they have before. Although one of the biggest questions of the Cameroonian’s deal is who can he fight in PFL that fans would be interested in watching.
The terms of Ngannou’s contract have him fighting strictly on pay-per-view, which could be a hard sell to MMA fans. In addition to his fight being on pay-per-view, PFL doesn’t have a heavyweight on their roster that are as popular as UFC heavyweights like Jon Jones. One of the fights that MMA fans hoped to see in Jones taking on “The Predator” at heavyweight could have resulted in a bigger payday for the newly signed PFL talent. However, Ngannou decided to sign with PFL, opening more opportunities as a fighter and working behind the scenes.
Jon Anik on Francis Ngannou’s PFL Opponent Situation
UFC Commentator Jon Anik weighed in on Ngannou’s decision on the John Anik and Kenny Florian Podcast. He shared he’s unsure if the former UFC Heavyweight Champion can fight a heavyweight in PFL that can bring intrigue. He also doubts if popular UFC heavyweights would want to jump to PFL.
“…There are some reports that Ngannou’s deal with the PFL is only a handful of fights, and sure, I’m not even going to start naming a UFC heavyweight that potentially would crossover or be on the tail end of the contract and have a big enough name. Like, you need the perfect storm, right? It’s like, I just think it’s ambitious to think that there’s going to be some relatively big-name UFC heavyweight that’s going to take the short-term play that is the PFL, but I love Francis Ngannou. I’m very happy that it’s the PFL because Ken-flo can get me tickets, but no, I think it makes a lot of sense, and I just hope the big fight materializes for him on the boxing side because otherwise, there were just a lot of big fights that could have happened in the UFC,” said Anik.
He noted that he doesn’t believe it’s solely on Ngannou for not making the Jones fight to happen, but he hopes Cameroonian’s situation in PFL works out. The PFL heavyweight isn’t expected to fight for the company until sometime next year. Ngannou is still looking for a boxing fight, but the biggest stars in the heavyweight division, like Anthony Joshua or Deontay Wilder, seem to have other plans.
Ngannou’s deal with PFL will continue to be a highly debated topic on whether he made the right decision.
Here we go
Lol…hell no…his 1st fight will probably be Bigfoot Silva or some shit… hes not fighting for another year and will likely be one and done
Maybe they could get Sergei Kharitinov. I can’t imagine the UFC let one of their fan favorites like Black Beast go.
TUi
UFC should let Gane jump all over it.
Jones already ran through him, plummeting his value.
Plus they won’t want him grabbing the title after Jones retires with that loss to Francis on his record.
Francis already beat him
Ah, somehow I missed that completely 
He squeaked by him and a rematch would be tenfold more interesting than anything PFL can currently put together.
#Casual
They are considering Tank Abbott to fight Francis next year.
Tank will be 59yrs old
Francis will be 46yrs old
He’d probably also want to grab francis’s junk
That’s not the first time someone said francis is 10 years older than he is.
Am i missing a joke or are you dumb?
A lot of Africans do not know their true real age
(No birth certificates etc)
and that’s especially prevelent in European football.
I’m definitely not dumb sir
Whats that grown ass man got to do with Frann