Francis Ngannou may 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 during their 2023 showdown; but he couldn't maintain that momentum as he was badly knocked out by Anthony Joshua just five months later. Now there is a priority for one of those two rematches.
Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
Francis Ngannou distances himself from a possible Anthony Joshua rematch
Between Joshua, Fury and countless other superstars competing in both the boxing ring and the MMA cage, there are plenty of potential next opponents for Francis Ngannou.
While 'The Predator' does indeed have several options available, there are certain fights that he would be cautious about if he had witnessed some questionable actions behind the scenes.
“A rematch with Joshua? I felt very bad and uncomfortable in that fight,” Ngannou told Second's Out earlier this week: “It's something that could happen, but what I know for sure is that I want the rematch with [Tyson] Fury.
“I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I didn't like the Joshua fight. It didn't make sense, and if it were the same scenario, I'm not interested – something dishonest definitely happened.
“I don't have a complete picture, but I saw for myself what was wrong. I've been in the dressing room for almost four hours and that doesn't happen, so just go 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 that left him frustrated and/or fatigued on fight night.
According to the MMA juggernaut, these ploys included leaving him without transportation during fight week, and purposefully making him arrive at the arena a few hours early while Joshua arrived suspiciously right on time for the main event.
“It's a trick they have in boxing, they have a lot of tricks… I didn't know how deep the problem was until I got into the last set, then I thought, 'OK, 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 to me.”
The Ukrainian secured the unanimous decision, 116-112 on all three judges' scorecard, although Ngannou saw that fight as much closer than these totals suggest.
“I think the fight was pretty close… I would have scored the fight closer. Maybe Usyk still wins. I mean, at the end of the fight I wasn't sure if anyone was the winner because anyone could have been the winner. According to my scorecard it was closer than that.”
Ngannou also objected to the use of an AI judge to help score the fight, claiming that while the tool “could be intelligent, [it] doesn't understand the sport well.
“It is a man's sport, not a machine sport. I think AI is still, regardless of everything, a machine that works automatically. I don't think AI has all the details or 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 now on?
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