Francis Ngannou’s boxing career continues to hang by a thread after the former UFC world champion was tipped for an “early” return to MMA.
The cage-fighter has recently stepped into heavyweight boxing for big-money bouts with Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua but, despite troubling the ‘Gypsy King’, he was dispatched in brutal fashion by Joshua earlier this month.
Now pushed down to 24th in the WBC division rankings, that knockout has all-but ended his world title hopes in the ring and he is next set to fight in MMA with the Professional Fighters League (PFL).
Brazilian fighter Renan Ferreira reigns the heavyweight division in PFL and in February defeated Bellator No1 Ryan Bader.
PFL president Don Davis hopes to match ‘Lo Problemo’ up with Ngannou and has now stated that the event could take place earlier than anticipated after the Cameroonian’s devastating defeat to Joshua.
He told the MMA Hour show: “I’m rooting for Francis all the time but now he’s coming back early, will it be as early as July? Maybe. Will it be as late as September? No later.
"But you’ll now see Francis in 2024 in the PFL against ‘Lo Problemo’ in what I believe is the fight that I’m looking forward to the most in the heavyweight divisions of all MMA.
“That will be a PPV fight, that card will also have Cris Cyborg vs Larissa Pacheco as the co-main fight, that card will also have Cedric Doumbe against someone who we will announce.
"So that [card] is going to be big, just because of Francis, but it will have other very compelling match-ups on it.”
Ngannou, 37, has spoken of his desire to continue to pursue his boxing dream.
“Right now, I don't know exactly what fight I'll be looking for next,” he said after the AJ KO.
“I know that I'm going to take some time to rest up, focus on myself, and then when I'm ready, I will get back to training.
“It's not over yet – not at all, We're just getting started. The only thing that we will miss this year is time, and I think we have some good amount of time ahead of us.”
