PFL star and former UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, has spoken about the potential of facing his former boxing opponents, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua in MMA.
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Despite Ngannou making the switch over to boxing to face two of the best heavyweights in the world in his first two fights, ‘The Predator’ doesn’t seem confident that the British heavyweight boxing stars, Fury and Joshua, will reciprocate what he did and come into a different sport to face him.
Last year, former UFC heavyweight champion, Ngannou, made his boxing debut in a huge super-fight against Fury. After losing a very close decision to ‘The Gypsy King,’ which many people actually thought Ngannou won, the Cameroonian ecured himself another huge boxing bout against Joshua just five months later. The fight against Josua was very different for Ngannou, as he got completely flatlined inside two rounds and put out cold.
Despite taking a brutal KO loss, the boxing world heaped praise on Ngannou for stepping into the ring against two of the best and most dominant heavyweight boxers in his first two professional fights.
When asked whether or not the British heavyweight boxing stars would do something similar to Ngannou and make a move over to MMA to face him, ‘The Predator’ did not seem confident that could happen as it is a lot more difficult to learn all aspects of martial arts as opposed to the one he had to, which was just solely boxing. Speaking to MMA journalist, John Morgan at last week’s PFL DC media scrum, Ngannou said the following:
“They don’t want that smoke. Nobody wants that, and I wouldn’t want it either. I don’t blame them. There is a lot of elements in MMA that’s way complicated for boxers to crossover than for MMA fighters to crossover to boxing. I need to see them do some practice. Maybe one of them have the wrestling skill. You don’t of the grappling skill. We need to see.”
Despite moves to MMA for both Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua being extremely unlikely, both men have shown interest and teased moves to MMA in the past.
Just after his brutal KO victory over Francis Ngannou earlier this year, ‘AJ’ posted training footage on social media of him kicking and kneeing pads which led to many people speculating he could be teasing a move over to MMA.
As for Fury, he has also shown interest in competing in MMA in the past. In recent years, ‘The Gypsy King’ has also been pictured training with well-known MMA fighters, Darren Till and Nick Diaz, and has also voiced the opinion that due to his bare-knuckle past, he could transition well to MMA.
