Los Angeles — Lineal heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou did exactly what was expected at the inaugural MMA event on Netflix on Saturday night.
Jake Paul’s MVP, who hosted the card, had tried to secure bigger name opponents for “The Predator,” who left the UFC when his contract expired without ever losing his heavyweight championship. That included Rico Verhoeven, the GLORY kickboxing legend. Yet in the end they had to settle for Philipe Lins, the 2018 PFL heavyweight champion who like Ngannou had left the UFC on a win streak.
Despite Lins pedigree (he’d won four straight at the end of his UFC run), the Brazilian wasn’t given much of a chance against Ngannou. And he didn’t last long, knocked out towards the end of the opening round.
Ngannou (19-3) has now won both his fights in MMA since exiting the UFC. The question now becomes, what’s next? The dream fight is Jon Jones, but Jones is unlikely to free himself from the grasp of the UFC, who seemingly shattered their relationship with “Bones” by refusing to let him compete on the White House card.
“I think it’s up to Jon Jones, and I can give you something if you want,” Ngannou said following the event at the Intuit Dome when asked about Jones, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press. “I’ve been thinking about it, if I was him. I don’t know if there’s a sunset on that contract anymore. What I know, he signed his contract in 2023, so three years [prior to] now. So the sunset is two years from now. I’m just saying, hypothetically.”
A sunset clause in his contract is how Ngannou escaped the UFC. Whether Jones has one is unknown, though he was on hand working the broadcast desk during the event. In any case, the UFC wasn’t taking Saturday’s Netflix card lightly. They opted to announce Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway 2 just as Ngannou was making his walk to the cage.
“And what the f*ck do I have to do with that? So I should stop my walkout and look what is going on with— I don’t care, bro,” Ngannou said in response to one reporter who opted to bring it up. “Let’s move on. Life goes on. I’m doing my stuff here, I’m doing good. I have no problem. Everybody can do whatever he wants.”
Ngannou did respond to Robelis Despaigne, who called Ngannou out after his own knockout of former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos.
“I’m down to fight, and if he thinks he can handle [me], okay. Why not?”
“He did make a statement, he had a great finish,” Ngannou added. “So after a finish like that, it’s hard to argue, to take something out of somebody.”
The options out there for Francis Ngannou do seem limited. Jon Jones is unlikely. Someone decided to bring up Brock Lesnar’s name on Saturday, probably for a headline, given Lesnar hasn’t fought professionally in a decade and is winding down his professional wrestling career. KSW has Phil De Fries, and PFL boasts Vadim Nemkov, both of who would be interesting names.
Ngannou just seems to want the biggest fight possible.
“What do I want? Whatever is out there. I really have nothing special. I mean, if not maybe that Jon Jones fight, some big fight. But I really have nothing special, I just want to keep doing it as long as we go. If I have something, I do it. I think I have done what could have been done.”
Watch the full MVP MMA: Rousey vs. Carano post-fight press conference with Francis Ngannou above.