Midnight Mania! Team Ngannou Ignored Joshua Superfight Invite

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Francis Ngannou and team had the chance to discuss a boxing superfight opposite Anthony Joshua, but they just never called back.

Ngannou, the former UFC heavyweight champion of the world, is coming off a sensational professional boxing debut against heavyweight king Tyson Fury this past October. The massive power puncher shocked the combat world by taking “Gypsy King” to the brink of defeat, even landing a huge knockdown early in the fight.

While the ink is still drying on Ngannou’s lucrative contract with Professional Fighters League (PFL), the promotion has been open to allowing “Predator” one more boxing match before his official PFL debut sometime in 2024. Ngannou looked so good against Fury that it makes sense for him to lace the boxing gloves up once more before journeying back to the cage.

Luckily, Ngannou has plenty of opponents to pick from. One of which is former boxing heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, who is coming off a massive knockout win over Robert Helenius this past August. Joshua is one of the biggest stars in boxing today and a great potential opponent should Ngannou decide to continue his boxing venture.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Ngannou is interested in fighting Joshua at this time. According to Matchroom Sport’s Eddie Hearn, Ngannou and team have yet to return phone calls about a potential fight with Joshua. Hearn believes that could mean Ngannou is already planning a rematch with Fury in late 2024.

“I reached out to Francis Ngannou’s team and I said, ‘Just to let you know, we’re up for discussing the Francis Ngannou [vs.] AJ fight. I never heard back from them,” said Hearn during Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour (via MMA Fighting). “So I think probably, knowing the business, I would say that probably Fury-Ngannou is almost probably agreed to post Fury-[Oleksandr] Usyk already.

“[Ngannou will] feel like, after that first fight, he can beat Fury, but there’s no point [in boxing non-stars] — he can really lose to anybody in the top 50 at heavyweight, so you’ve got to cash in at this point, and there’s really only three fights that cash into the levels that he will want [Fury, Joshua, or Deontay Wilder]. So I’d guess, and you might know better, Francis Ngannou will fight in the PFL or wherever in spring, summer of 2024, and then he’ll fight Tyson Fury at the end of [2024]. I would think that would be the mindset of the team.”

It’s unknown at this time what’s in store for Ngannou in 2024, but it’s going to be big. Whether it’s a rematch with Fury, a matchup with Joshua, or a MMA fight with Deontay Wilder, Ngannou will have plenty of chances to get paid next year.

That is, of course, if his team can pick up the phone.

Insomnia

Wonder why UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley is so hungry.

Please book Beneil Dariush vs. Benoit Saint Denis right now!

Will Anthony Smith ever fight for another UFC title?

Is this one of the best UFC posters of all time?

Does this make you like/hate Paddy Pimblett any more or any less?

Is this a fight you want to see in 2024?

Merab Dvalishvili just started training camp and is already kicking the ladies to the curb!

Would you miss a family member’s wedding to fight “Wonderboy?”

Who actually has better boxing between Conor McGregor and Petr Yan?

Slips, rips, and KO clips

This is a vastly underrated submission finish by Jim Miller over Charles Oliveira (circa 2010):

This clip of Arturs Ahmetovs dropping Claressa Shields in sparring back in 2018 made quite the impact on social media on Monday.

The aftermath…

You’re never too young to brawl on the ice!

Random Land

I dare you to find a better mancave from 2023!

How the hell is this a thing?