Francis Ngannou, the former UFC heavyweight champion, has just suffered a humiliating loss against Anthony Joshua in his second professional boxing bout. After his promising debut against the WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, many thought Ngannou would be a tough fight for the British superstar.
However, that was not the case on March 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Right from the beginning, Joshua seemed extremely confident about getting the job done, while Ngannou had a nervous energy about him. The Cameroonian fighter did not get the chance to settle in, as Joshua scored two knockdowns and landed the KO punch within the second round to win the bout. It was the very first KO loss of Ngannou’s fighting career.
With the victory, Joshua is currently on a 4-fight win streak and has seemingly recovered from the two devastating losses against Oleksandr Usyk. Francis Ngannou, on the other hand, is going through a tough period at the moment. After the brutal defeat at the hands of Anthony Joshua, “The Predator” took to his X (formerly Twitter) account to apologize for his performance on the night.
Sorry guys I let you all down 😔 Today was a bad day in the office but tomorrow will be another day.
— Francis Ngannou (@francis_ngannou) March 9, 2024
Thank you all for the love ❤️
He wrote, “Sorry guys I let you all down 😔 Today was a bad day in the office but tomorrow will be another day. Thank you all for the love ❤️”
Despite the stunning performance against Tyson Fury, Francis Ngannou lost the bout via split decision in 2023. And, now the Anthony Joshua fight will go down as another blemish on the 37-year-old fighter’s combat sports career. He is also winless in over two years as Ngannou’s last successful venture came against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 in January 2022. So when will he fight in MMA next? Let’s find out.
Francis Ngannou will face Renan Ferreira in his PFL debut
Regardless of what happens inside a boxing ring, MMA will always be the bread and butter for Francis Ngannou. He is capable of amazing things in an MMA cage and the KO’s of Stipe Miocic, and Alistair Overeem, and the amazing grappling performance against Ciryl Gane are the prime examples of that. However, he has not had an MMA fight in a long time and fans are eagerly waiting to know who he will face next.
The former UFC fighter will face Renan Ferreira on his PFL debut. Ngannou signed with PFL in May 2023. It is a lucrative deal that guarantees PPV shares for Francis. The deal also allowed the fighter to explore boxing options wherever he wanted to. Recently, they announced that Ngannou would face the winner of Ryan Bader vs Renan Ferreira, which took place on the PFL vs. Bellator card in February.
Francis Ngannou now has to go to PFL and fight Renan Ferreira… bro should just retire with $20M pic.twitter.com/Qmd4X9b37l
— Dovy🔌 (@DovySimuMMA) March 9, 2024
Ferreira got the win against Bader and earned the chance to fight Francis Ngannou in a future PPV. While Ngannou reportedly will earn a minimum of $1 million for the bout, there is no word on how much his opponent will receive. One can imagine that Ngannou will take some time off after the loss to Joshua and fans should not expect to see him in the smart-cage anytime soon.
