Francis Ngannou is poised to make his eagerly awaited PFL debut this Saturday after signing with the group final 12 months. He’s set to face Renan Ferreira in a extremely anticipated title bout for the heavyweight championship.
This conflict will headline the PFL Tremendous Fights: Battle of the Giants pay-perview, happening at The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The previous UFC heavyweight champion departed the promotion following his title protection towards Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 in January 2022, pushed by his long-standing dream to compete in boxing. He confronted former heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua within the ring, however his foray into boxing didn’t go as deliberate.
The matchup between Ngannou and Ferreira has turn out to be probably the most mentioned fights of the 12 months, because it marks the return of “The Predator” to the MMA cage after greater than two years away. Nevertheless, former UFC welterweight Matt Brown believes that Ngannou has but to achieve the extent of stardom essential to generate a big pay-per-view draw for the PFL.
Throughout a latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Author (by way of MMAFighting), “The Immortal” remarked that whereas Ngannou’s boxing matches had been hailed as marquee occasions attributable to his bouts with two of the largest names within the sport, his upcoming PFL combat could wrestle to achieve related traction, primarily as a result of his opponent lacks widespread recognition.
“He’s not that huge of a star,” Brown mentioned. “We watched him combat Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury due to him combating these guys. He’s not a Conor McGregor, and we’re simply going to observe him irrespective of who he fights. Even when Conor fought some lower-level man, there could be a drop-off in pay-per-views, proper?He’s bought to have a ‘B’ facet additionally that’s a ‘B’ facet. Francis is combating a ‘D’ facet right here. It’s not a ‘B’ facet. It’s a ‘D’ facet, and Francis simply isn’t large enough of an ‘A’ facet to attract. We don’t understand how a lot he’s getting paid, but when it’s the quantities we’d guess, it’s not going to cowl his expense, I don’t assume.”
PFL CEO Peter Murray has confidently proclaimed that the Battle of the Giants card will outshine each UFC 300 and UFC 306 by way of reputation, setting it as much as be the 12 months’s premier MMA occasion. Nevertheless, followers must wait till the weekend to see if the Ngannou-headlined spectacle lives as much as the hype.
