‘The Rematch Is What I Want’

It hasn’t taken long for Ngannou to plot out his 2024, which could include a Fury rematch and return to MMA.

After nearly beating Tyson Fury in the Battle of the Baddest, Francis Ngannou is a hot commodity in both boxing and MMA. What’s next for “The Predator” is a big question … one that he recently answered in a new interview with TMZ Sports.

“The rematch. The rematch is what I want next the most,” Ngannou said. “Right now, I feel like there’s a lot of options for me, but I wanna choose wisely and I will go for the rematch first.”

Ngannou is convinced that he’ll only do better now that’s he’s competed in a boxing ring for ten rounds and knows how his body feels.

“Going into the first one, there were a lot of questions, a lot of uncertainty for boxing. This was my first training camp since almost two years, my first fight since almost two years. Even going into the training camp, there was a lot of unknown. That is a lot of experience that will definitely help me a lot for the second fight.”

“My best scenario in boxing is to wait for Fury,” he concluded. “I mean, if Usyk can step out and let me fight Fury, then I fight Fury. [Or] I let them do whatever they do, I go back, maybe do some MMA, and come back and take some people in boxing.”

“I’m planning to fight twice next year, maybe February or March. If [Fury] doesn’t work, I can still fight February or March MMA, and then expect by the end of the year to get ready for the boxing match.”

That will make the PFL happy. Ngannou signed with them early in 2023, but after he nearly beat Fury there were real questions as to whether Francis would come back to MMA at all. But it sounds like “The Predator” has unfinished business with “The Gypsy King” and he is unwilling to move on in the boxing world until it’s settled.