Francis Ngannou’s next boxing opponent named by financier who paid him tens of millions to fight Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua

Francis Ngannou could return to boxing in 2025.

The MMA legend impressed many when he crossed over to the squared circle and dropped Tyson Fury during his debut in the game last 12 months.

A controversial split decision defeat against top-of-the-line paved the way in which for Francis Ngannou vs Anthony Joshua, which resulted in a sickening second-round knockout loss for the boxing novice.  

Francis Ngannou’s boxing profession gave the impression to be over when he returned to MMA and have become the inaugural PFL super fights heavyweight champion by quickly knocking out Renan Ferreira in October.

Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

What’s next for Francis Ngannou?

There appears to be a definite lack of viable opponents for Francis Ngannou within the PFL, besides the recent $1million heavyweight tournament winner Denis Goltsov.

Saudi boxing chief Turki Alalshikh has suggested that the Cameroonian knockout artist’s next fight may very well be in boxing against former WBC champion Deontay Wilder.

First, he wants to envision ‘The Bronze Bomber’ is fight-ready after suffering shock defeats in back-to-back fights against Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang.

“I want to sit down with Wilder [for] two minutes to see his condition,” Alalshikh told DAZN on Tuesday.

“I can catch it from two minutes [and check] if he’s ready or not. I don’t wish to waste money and time anymore. I want to envision first if he’s still got it.

“Francis will come to me in December to look at the [Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury] rematch. We’ve got numerous business together.

“Yes, I even have on the table two options for Francis. One in MMA and one in boxing I need to check with him.”

Turki Alalshikh desires to make a cross-promotion fight between Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones but accepts that may very well be tough with UFC CEO Dana White against the concept.

He added: “The MMA [fight], you already know on a regular basis, my answer is we wish to do the most important things… We’d like to send Dana White to the moon [laughs].”

Michael Bisping rules out UFC-PFL co-promotion

UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping seriously doubts Ngannou vs Jones will ever occur.

The previous middleweight champion turned MMA commentator believes his bosses stand to realize nothing from cross-promoting with their biggest rival

“I don’t think it’s gonna occur,” Bisping said during an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow.

“Why? I understand that cash talks, and also you never know, possibly some gigantic sum of money appears from one among the parties in Saudia Arabia and possibly that gets the deal done.

“By way of business, if it [the UFC] was my organization that I’d built for 30 years, that this sport was founded upon, and you then’ve got PFL on the market…

“I’m just saying if it was my business, who stands to realize more there? Who stands to realize? The PFL. The PFL then are held in the identical regard because the UFC.

“Yeah, it might be a tremendous fight, and all of us wish to see it. In fact we do, all of us wish to see the most effective fight the most effective.

“But when I used to be running the UFC I’d be like, ‘No probability! We tried to make that fight. We offered him a ton of cash and he didn’t wish to do it. It’s a shame’. I wouldn’t cross-promote right away.”

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