Ngannou wants preparatory fight for boxing megafight

Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou said he hopes to have his next fight in a boxing ring.

“Thoughts about boxing are still relevant. I always dreamed of getting Tyson Fury as a rival, but now he is not quite available. Or, for example, Deontay Wilder. His and my teams went back and forth, but we didn't reach an agreement due to his potential fight with AJ in December. However, we are still set to fight after that. The opponents we are looking at are Fury, Joshua and Wilder. So far, we have only communicated with Wilder.

We were talking to Eddie Hearn once, but that was when Joshua was supposed to fight Franklin. This is something interesting, and I think if we agree on a fight in Africa, it will be a big event. When we talked with Wilder, we discussed a two-fight agreement. One is in Africa and the other is somewhere else. We want to offer the same for Joshua, and I think he will also be interested in this.

Since boxing's biggest stars won't be available until the end of the year, I want to have a "preparatory" fight for my debut that could be Floyd Mayweather's banner ad. My team is in talks with Floyd's Money Team about boxing and we're going to move forward in that direction," Ngannou said in an interview with DAZN.

Today, May 16, Ngannou signed an agreement with the PFL mixed martial arts league.