‘The Bo Jackson Of Combat Sports’

PFL founder Donn Davis sees Ngannou fighting for his MMA promotion several times in the future.

The PFL is still hyping up Francis Ngannou’s return to MMA, despite the former UFC heavyweight champion’s continued success in the boxing world.

Ngannou’s first announcement after leaving the UFC was a deal to fight with the PFL. A few months after that, though, Saudi Arabia stepped in and set up a massive boxing superfight featuring “The Predator” and Tyson Fury. Ngannou shocked the world by nearly winning a split decision, and now he’s set to face Anthony Joshua on March 8th.

The winner of that bout is expected to fight the winner of Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury for the undisputed heavyweight boxing championship. So to say Ngannou is a little preoccupied with bigger things would be an understatement.

That hasn’t stopped PFL founder Donn Davis from talking up Francis’ eventual return to MMA.

“I’m 100 per cent confident that Francis fights MMA for PFL – not just once, but several times,” Davis told The Independent. “And I’m confident that Francis will be our long-term business partner. I believe that he will ultimately prove himself to be the greatest athlete in combat sports – the Bo Jackson, if you will, of combat sports.”

“I think Francis has an appetite to be a champion in boxing and to remain a champion in MMA. That’s so audacious that only someone of Francis’s character can set that goal, so I think you will see him continue to do both and continue to be successful at both.”

Winning another MMA title would certainly be a feather in Ngannou’s cap, but the PFL will have to put forward a worthy contender for it to mean something. That’s clearly an issue, and Davis had nothing to offer other than the winner of the upcoming PFL vs. Bellator event’s heavyweight showdown between Ryan Bader and Renan “Problema” Ferreira.

“I believe the winner of ‘La Problema’ and Bader will interest Francis Ngannou,” Davis said. “I think whoever comes out of this has proven themselves to truly be the No. 1 contender in heavyweight MMA – not just in our organization. Bader has ruled the roost in Bellator for five years. ‘La Problema’ is the toughest, most athletic opponent in the world.”

“I don’t know who’s gonna win that, but I think whoever wins that can lay claim to challenge Francis – and I’m interested to see if Francis accepts that.”

We have our doubts. Ngannou is fighting the absolute biggest names in boxing right now. It would be extremely charitable for him to step back into the cage against Bader or Ferreira. But Davis argued that there’s no one bigger, other than Jon Jones.

“I think outside of Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones, these are the two best heavyweights in the world,” he said. “But the rest of the heavyweights in the UFC are not particularly interesting. Stipe [Miocic] was, but he’s 41, he’s got one fight left. Then there’s nobody else on the rise there that’s any better or any more interesting than this match-up of ‘La Problema’ and Bader.”

Some have pointed out in the past that there’s nothing stopping the UFC from co-promoting a Jones vs. Ngannou fight with PFL. But let’s be real: UFC CEO Dana White isn’t doing that. So Donn will have to hope Ngannou gets some downtime between all these legendary eight-figure boxing matches, and he’s willing to fight down to re-prove a point about his MMA credentials.