It’s been over two and a half years since Ngannou’s last MMA fight but he will make his cage return this autumn against PFL world champion Renan Ferreira
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Ngannou hits out at Fury during Joshua fight press conference
03:58, 13 Apr 2024
Updated04:40, 13 Apr 2024
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Francis Ngannou will make his MMA return in September or October after his brutal KO defeat to Anthony Joshua.
Ex-UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou was dropped twice by Joshua in their heavyweight showdown last month before being stopped for good in the second round. Ngannou has since produced a lengthy list of excuses for his loss, even blaming his arrival time to the arena as one of the reasons he didn’t feel right on the night.
Ngannou vacated his UFC heavyweight title last year and signed with rival MMA promotion PFL to pursue a boxing career. The 37-year-old is now 0-2 in the ring after controversially losing his debut to heavyweight champion Tyson Fury last October before his latest defeat to Joshua. PFL boss Donn Davis has now announced Ngannou will debut for the promotion this autumn.
Francis Ngannou was KO’d by Anthony Joshua last month
“We talked to Francis and he said before the fight in Saudi Arabia that he planned to come in MMA this year,” Davis said when asked about Ngannou’s MMA return by Mirror Fighting . “It just depended on the outcome of that fight, he said if he lost that it’ll be sooner and if he won it would have been later, so it will be sooner.
“He says he is recharging, he went home to Cameroon after the [Joshua] fight. We think it will be autumn, it could be as early as September or as later as October. I think it will be one of those two but he will be ready. It’ll be a little over two years since we’ve seen Francis in MMA and we are excited to see him in the SmartCage against Renan Ferreira.”
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Ferreira secured himself a fight against Ngannou by KO’ing Ryan Bader in just 21-seconds two months ago. The Brazilian called out Ngannou, who was cageside for the fight, after his impressive win. “I am the real champion out here, I am the record breaker and record setter,” Ferreira said.
“Francis, where are you? Let’s do this. I’ve always been ready to fight against the very best in the world, it can be against Francis in the boxing ring or in the cage, wherever he wants to do it. I already am one of the greatest heavyweights of all-time, I’ve proved this inside of the SmartCage and I’m going to continue proving it.”
