Francis Ngannou will make his long-awaited MMA return on May 16, facing Philipe Lins in the co-main event of Most Valuable Promotions’ first MMA card on Netflix, headlined by Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. The heavyweight bout is set for five rounds under the Unified Rules of MMA and will stream globally on Netflix as part of the platform’s first live MMA show.
Philipe Lins lands Francis Ngannou fight on Netflix MVP debut
The event marks a major step for MVP and Netflix after the success of their boxing partnership, which peaked with Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson in November 2024, a show Netflix said drew 125 million viewers worldwide and became the most-streamed sporting event in the service’s history. Rousey vs Carano at 145 pounds is already positioned as Netflix’s first live MMA main event and MVP’s debut MMA promotion, with both women coming out of retirement to finally settle a matchup that has been discussed for more than a decade. The card will take place inside a hexagon cage at the Intuit Dome, the new arena in Inglewood that recently opened as the Los Angeles Clippers’ home.
Ngannou’s booking closes the loop on months of speculation about where the former UFC heavyweight champion and PFL Super Fights titleholder would land after securing his release from the PFL earlier this year. He has not fought in MMA since October 2024, when he stopped Renan Ferreira in the first round to win the PFL Super Fights Heavyweight Championship, then shifted his focus to big-money boxing bouts while remaining largely inactive in the cage.
According to ESPN, the Lins fight will be a five-round heavyweight contest using 4oz gloves and contested under the Unified Rules, giving Ngannou a main-stage return that matches the scale he has been publicly seeking.
In a statement to ESPN, Ngannou framed the Netflix appearance as a statement of intent and a reset for his MMA career. He said that while the public conversation focused on his contract moves and boxing ventures, he was “evolving” and waiting for a platform that could reach a global audience, pointing to the Netflix partnership as that stage. The matchup also serves as his first bout since parting ways with the PFL, which had signed him in 2023 but featured him just once under its banner.
Lins arrives as a dangerous, if less heralded, opponent with experience in the UFC, Bellator and PFL. The Brazilian won the PFL heavyweight tournament in 2018, then later reinvented himself at light heavyweight in the UFC, where he put together a four-fight win streak between 2022 and 2024 before his release in early 2024. The Ngannou fight represents his first return to heavyweight in nearly six years and the biggest profile bout of his career, with MVP billing the clash as a meeting of two heavyweight knockout artists on a global streaming stage.
Rousey vs Carano remains the clear driver for the May 16 show, but Ngannou’s addition gives MVP the kind of one-two lineup it hinted at when co-founder Nakisa Bidarian teased a major co-main event for the card. Ariel Helwani first broke the Rousey–Carano news in February, calling it Netflix’s first MMA card and MVP’s first MMA event, and has since framed the promotion’s move into MMA as one of the most intriguing power plays of 2026.
With Rousey and Carano ending long layoffs and Ngannou returning from a lengthy MMA absence against a proven veteran in Lins, May 16 is now set as a landmark night both for Netflix’s combat sports push and for MVP’s expansion beyond boxing.
