'He's not elite'… Jake Paul, Jon Jones and more fighters predict Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Ferreira ahead of PFL Super Fights: Battle of the Giants
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Francis Ngannou’s highly anticipated return to MMA is almost upon us.
The former UFC heavyweight champion hasn’t competed in his first sport since outpointing Ciryl Gane over five rounds at UFC 270 in January 2022.
Since then, he’s left the UFC, signed with PFL, and made millions in boxing bouts with Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, who brutally knocked him out when they fought in March.
Now he’s set to make his MMA comeback. Renan Ferreira is the man who’ll welcome him back to the cage at PFL Super Fights: Battle of the Giants at The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.
- Who is Francis Ngannou?Inside the former UFC heavyweight champion's journey from poverty to combat sports superstardom
MMA stars offer their predictions for Francis Ngannou vs Renan Ferreira
Everyone is interested in Ngannou’s return to the sport that made him famous, but the people in it are divided when it comes to his fight with Ferreira.
Some are backing him to enjoy an emphatic return to winning ways, while others believe he could come unstuck against Ferreira, who knocked out Ryan Bader in 21 seconds to earn a fight with Ngannou earlier this year.
BloodyElbow.com has put together a list of predictions from some of MMA’s biggest stars.
Jake Paul: "I just think Francis just has so much to prove here that he’s going to rise to the occasion,” Paul said after facing off the fighters in August. “With a taller man and as strong as Francis is with his solid base I just think he’s going to be able to clip Ferreira at some point.”
Jon Jones: "I think I’m putting my money [on] the Brazilian,” Jones wrote on social media.
Tom Aspinall: “[Renan Ferreira], he's not elite,” Aspinall told Ariel Helwani earlier this week. “The guy he's fighting fought a friend of mine and a training partner of mine, Ante Delija (two years ago), and Ante just destroyed him within a minute or two. Took him down, ground and pounded him and stopped him within the first minute, and now this guy's fighting Francis Ngannou.
“So, the guy isn't elite, his opponent. Yeah, he's big. Yeah, he's powerful. Yeah, he could knock you out, but he's not an elite heavyweight. I'm not disrespecting him. The elite guys are not in the PFL. The elite guys are in the UFC.”
Dan Hardy: "I think we are gonna get the best [Ngannou] performance yet,” Hardy told BloodyElbow.com.
Jan Blachowicz: “It's going to be like always with Ngannou,” Blachowicz said during an exclusive interview with BloodyElbow.com. “I think he will knock him out maybe first or second round. We will see. I will watch it because I want to see how he looks in another organization. I wanna see what changes he's [made].
Dakota Ditcheva: “Renan Ferreira is from ATT where I am,” Dakota told InsideFighting. “If you see that man hit the pads, you'll just know straight away who is going to win the fight. I know Ngannou is a unit as well, but Renan has got a little bit of height on him and will have the reach on him. I just think he's 100 percent gonna win, but it's gonna be a massive fight. Two massive guys like that facing each other, it's gonna be crazy and I definitely think it will be a knockout.”
Denis Goltsov: “They're both very tough fighters, very physical fighters, specimens," Goltsov said in an interview with Cageside Press. "I feel like if Francis is coming in good shape, overall he has a little more experience as an MMA fighter. Having said that, Ferreria has those long arms and heavy hands, so it's going to be an interesting fight. However, I would give a slight advantage towards Francis.”
Francis Ngannou warns Renan Ferreira about his grappling skills
Ngannou and Ferreira are both known for their ridiculous knockout power, so most people are expecting them to hurl bombs at each other from the first bell on Saturday.
However, during a press conference on Thursday, the Cameroonian KO machine warned his opponent that he’s much more than a puncher, and sparked speculation that he may approach his MMA comeback bout differently.
"This is an MMA fight, so everything will be on display," teased Ngannou on the possibility that we see the two knockout artists ditching their striking skills, in favor of a grappling match.
"We prepare for everything and yes, everything will be on display… I think Renan might be preparing something too because he is a Jiu-Jitsu black belt, and I think he's not underlining my punching power too.
"I'm going to fight strategically depending on how the fight presents itself… In my career, only once I went for a knockout and it didn't work out for me, the other time that I had a knockout in 25 seconds, it wasn't something that was planned so let's keep it authentic."
