Topic: MMA Info and Predictions - Bellator, KSW, PFL, ONE... - page 18. (Read 15090 times)

That is why PFL is going to hire new heavyweight fighters and I am almost sure someone from UFC will transition and sign to PFL
I saw Dana White saying that he doesnt understand why PFL is doing with this, but I think he understands very well and he is afraid.
He is really desperate and now he is willing to accept Jon Jones fighting against Tyson Fury  in boxing   

Ngannou has created such a fame during his UFC era, that in any sports he will looks like a favourite. Even if it ice hockey or dancing.

Delija is a good matchup for Ngannou. There is just one problem with that fight. Delija seems to be the strongest or best heavyweight PFL has. In Ngannou wins, and wins easily, there will be no big interest in watching his next fights there, as he would beat already the best they've got. If only they would sign someone else.

Randy Couture said that Croatian fighter Ante Delija would make a great debut opponent for Francis Ngannou in the PFL, and I agree with him.
Few days ago Delija was one of my suggestions to fight against Ngannou, and many people dont know that he is in good relationship with MMA legend Mirko Crocop,
and maybe Stipe Miocic could help Delija to prepare for this fight and give him some tips how to fight against Ngannou, he already beat him once in 2018.
To be fair I think that Ngannou would be huge favorite in that fight, but Delija should not be underestimated.
Randy Couture interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGKCLO3sTr0

Ngannou will have a boxing tune-up this year so it's most likely a weaker opposition and someone that makes Ngannou win in an impressive fashion as much as possible. And if his dream comes true facing either Fury, Aj, or Wilder, of course, he will get destroyed.

Dana is not obsessed with Ngannou but he is well aware of the financial risks once Ngannou will have a very successful PPV event on his PFL debut. The UFC is earning a lot of money on its PPV events and this might change once its fighters will start demanding a higher share percentage. Besides, if PFL will get even with the same PPV numbers as the UFC, it will become capable of offering UFC stars with higher PPV shares.

I have different opinion. Ngannou wants to fight only top boxers. He has named 3 persons, Fury, AJ and Wilder. All of them are able (and most likely do) to destroy Ngannou in boxing. Not just win, but KO him. I think Dana would put maximum effort to spoil Ngannou possible boxing fight. Like running an UFC event with big names parallelly. It will also harm UFC, but that will shit greatly boxing event with stealing viewers.

But, I think Dana wont be doing anything like that. I think he has left Ngannou case already, but the fact that he comment on that is just the fact that he is only answering question. I think Dana is no longer obsessed with Ngannou. Like with Fedor Emelianenko. He wanted to sign him badly, offered him millions, but after a number of failed, dropped that idea and is no longer interested in that fight. Same goes with Dana and Ngannou. This is already past for him, and as a man behind UFC wheel, he build future, not paying attention to past.

I highly doubt that Dana will make any collaborations that have to do with Ngannou. Dana White is not at peace right now after Ngannou successfully lured the other big organizations to offer him big contracts. Dana will find peace only if Ngannou losses his boxing tune-up (unlikely) this year which means devaluing his market and of course the PPV numbers after his PFL debut which is expected to happen next year.

But even at the moment, I am hearing rumors which are normal for the remaining UFC stars with lesser contracts but are already proven with their PPV numbers. Well, actually most of UFC's champions have higher PPV numbers than Ngannou. Dana might be forced to change his style in computing PPV shares to his stars which is very very small compared to Ngannou's 50% with PFL.

This is the only way for Ngannou to let everyone know and clear every doubt that he is the best Heavyweight fighter no matter where he is and the UFC cannot decline that kind of offer if Ngannou will win some fights after he signed on PFL. He just needs to prove himself after a minimum of two fights and he can call out Dana to make it happen when they gonna reject that offer, then it's a win for Ngannou because he took the necessary reason to prove himself and the one who is running away is the UFC. They will need a real logical answer for the fans because that just doesn't make sense if they easily decline it.

There are still big differences when it comes to boxing and MMA at least we see that with most of Jake Paul's fights while fighting an MMA fighter but yeah the biggest thing is about both fighters' gas tanks mostly boxers would have a much gas than with MMA fighters however I think Francis Ngannou has already known this kind of issue and I think that is why he wants to fight those heavyweight meaning he is already ready and prepared for them,


That is a great idea to piss off Dana White, however, I really think Dana White is already at his boiling point even though he doesn't show it in public it was seen in his latest interview, now the PFL need to do their all to reign slightly higher than UFC,

Those fighters that weren't in the UFC anymore will likely take a different route or even take PFL for that matter, because of what it did to Francis Ngannou maybe other fighters will used this same trick,

That Francis Ngannou contract signing is a blast I really think that he has caught a big fish and that is PFL, I just wish it will really be a benefit for both parties, but anyway moving on to PFL I really think we got an LFA even coming this week because we don't have any UFC event this week, and it will be the other week I guess posting this is a great time,

LFA 159: Polastri vs. Conceição

Date & Time: 05.27.2023 at 09:00 PM ET
Promotion: Legacy Fighting Alliance
Location: Caraguatatuba, São Paulo, Brazil



MAIN EVENT
Julia Polastri VS Rose Conceição

CO-MAIN EVENT
Rodolfo Bellato VS Acácio dos Santos

MAIN CARD
Geraldo Neto VS Argemiro Delmandes
Lucas Rocha VS Matheus da Silva
Hugo Cunha VS Fernando Batista
Vinicius Pires VS Kauã Fernandes
Anderson Ferreira VS Junior Luiz

PRELIMINARY CARD
Gabriel Silva VS Lerryan Douglas
Marcos Degli VS Hugo Paiva
Isaias Simões VS João Paulo Santos
Levi Rodrigues VS José Carlos Lima
Rafaela Silva VS Aieza Bertolso

Info was from Tapology: https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/100420-lfa-159-polastri-vs-conceicao

I think this is possible to happen only when Dana White leaves UFC.
Ngannou did amazing thing with this deal and he proved that he cares a lot about other people, after him nothing in MMA will be the same, that is why Dana was afraid of him.
If Dana lived in time of ancient Rome he would probably be owner of slave gladiators 

I like Pena much more than Nunes, it is a shame she got injured, but I think she is younger and have time to be champion again.

When Francis was still in the UFC fighting every heavyweight he can but Jones stays retired and when Ngannou didn't sign another contract Jones comes back. I don't think Ngannou was ducking him. Dana knows Ngannou wants Jones so he activates Jones back to lure Ngannou back to UFC but the bad blood between Dana and Francis spilled worse already. A cross-promotion might just be a fair stage for this to materialize otherwise there is no interesting fight but boxing for Francis.

I doubt Jon Jones would fight for any other promotion once he makes his retirement. He is a legend of the sport and Francis Ngannou was not even willing to fight Jon Jones in the UFC and left on his terms and with the money Jon Jones makes with the UFC he wont be returning once again after he makes his mind retiring from active competition.

All the best Heavyweights are in the UFC and PFL can sign the old stars but what interest that will be created as everyone knows Ngannou is not even fighting the best fighters. The PPV numbers and the revenue he can generate in his next fight in the PFL will determine whether the signing was a strong one.

For now Jon Jones is still the holder of the heavyweight champion title in the UFC and it looks like he will retire when later his fighting performance decreases and is beaten by another bettor in the heavyweight class, with Jon Jones' retirement later I am not sure the PFL will make a contract with him because remember now he is 36 years old.
Actually Ngannou also has almost the same age as Jon Jones and if the PFL brings them together it will be a very epic battle because both of them are great heavyweight fighters.
But back to the original thought that it doesn't look like the PFL is going to sign Jon Jones.

^  A cross promotion event is the only chance we see an Ngannou vs Jones match up.  And judging from what the UFC was willing to do with Nunes and Kayla Harris before, it's not outside the realms of possbility that we see a Ngannou vs Jones event happening.  It just needs to make some sense from a business perspective and it really does make a looot of sense.

With Nunes vs Harris...  It was supposed to happen after Nunes vs Pena at UFC 269.  But the huge upset happened with Pena winning the bout.  So the planned cross promotion event was cancelled.

When Jon Jones retires, PFL needs to sign him and organize a fight against Ngannou If they do that, Dana would smash everything and everyone, instead of slapping his wife

Overeem isnt that scare without roids, Cigano has already lost to Ngannou, Rothwell will be like taking a candy from kid for Ngannou, Delija - probably wont survive Ngannou pressure. But Werdum is able to pull some BJJ trick imho.

^
Speculations already started for next Francis Ngannou opponents in PFL next year.
PFL needs to first sign good heavyweight opponents, and after stunt Ngannnou did I won't be surprised if some UFC fighters switch to PFL just to fight him and earn minimum $2 million dollars.
Here are the names circulating right now as his potential opponents, Junior Dos Santos, Ante Delija, Ben Rothwell, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, and otthers.
Ngannou started teasing everyone with calling out Tyson Fury ands someone proposed super fight Ngannou vs Jones in cross promotion.

Good point about stamina. During early career, Ngannou fight mostly oxygen, not his opponent. He does not have much experience of long fights. Boxers imho are more endured than MMA fighters. They dont spend stamina on leg kicks, they dont have to try to move from 120+ kg that lays on them (even though some prefer dirty boxing and lean opponents). Quadriceps, humans biggest muscle, does not eat that much energy in boxing. Good that you have point that. I dont see Ngannou ready for 12 round fight.

Well, just like you I am having doubts about the heavyweight fighters of the PFL and I don't think they will try and make a dent in Francis Ngannou at all, but yeah maybe In the future, but I don't really see any PFL fighter that could make a great stand-up against Ngannou maybe his 1st fight with PFL there will be many PPV on that fight because for sure people are excited about it and really missed Ngannou inside the ring, but if that fight could end up with a dominant win for Francis Ngannou then the next fight it will sure don't have any PPV at all this is just my opinion, but if that is a boxing match in the PFL banner I think that will be a profitable for both parties,


In a heavyweight fight, Francis Ngannou is expected to KO/TKO his opponent very quickly, but yeah many never expected something from Ngannou if he could defeat a boxer because that is something really unexpected an MMA fighter shifting to Boxing just because he likes it doesn't mean that he's going to be very good at it,

But surely Francis Ngannou wants a large sum of money for every fight he made and as a very dangerous sport this should be the pay a fighter should get after the fight but for an MMA fight it was a very lucrative contract that the PFL has given him and for sure all given in that contract Francis Ngannou has a large benefit in them, but if this becomes a success then I think PFL will have an edge towards UFC, and I think that could be a plan by Francis Ngannou as well,

Ngannou is expected to have his boxing tune-up this year. Maybe he should start training early and then late-noticed someone that is past his prime and is also inactive. Someone that is not mobile and only has 4 weeks or less to train. Or maybe an agent can just pay someone to let Ngannou win in a KO. Still, I don't see Ngannou having enough energy after 4 rounds. Any of the top 20 with proper training camp can easily jab him to death. And fat guys like Andy Ruiz have more energy and speed.

The real target after his tune-up are Fury, AJ, and Wilder. All of them except Wilder possessed skills but after their previous losses, it seems like only Fury is capable of bringing a possible 1 million PPV buys with Ngannou. But 500k PPV buys is probably enough for Ngannou to earn around $15 million.

More interested to see Ngannou having a boxing fight against one of top heavyweights, than to see him having MMA fight against PFL heavyweight I dont think that any of PFL heavyweights are able to cause Ngannou serious troubles (if only they are not elite jitsers and can do something weight like leg or knee locks, because strangling or trying to break Ngannou hands is useless ). Ngannou talked a lot about how he wants big numbers and boxing fight. It will be fun to see how almost every his boxing opponent have similar knocking power and what Ngannou to put against them.