Francis Ngannou is now making a name in the MMA and boxing worlds. For the fighter’s coach, Eric Nicksick, this gives Ngannou a plethora of options to choose from for his next fights. And for the team, Renan Ferreira and Deontay Wilde are two of the dominant options to consider now.
Ngannou is undeniably one of the biggest names in the MMA industry, even if his fight against Jon Jones didn’t materialize. And despite losing to Tyson Fury via a split decision in October, “The Predator” garnered an impressive reputation in boxing after giving the opponent a challenging bout. Now, the Xtreme Couture head coach said that the team is figuring out the best path for Ngannou.
“The world is his right now, so he was home,” the coach told InsideFighting. “He actually came to practice last Tuesday, so he’s at practice. We chopped it up a little bit, and then he went back home for the holidays. It’s all still kind of up in the air. We have some ideas on what we want to do, and really, for him, it’s just whatever best option becomes available.”
According to Nicksick, Ferreira will be the team’s option if the fighter chooses to have an MMA fight next, while Wilder will be Ngannou’s ideal opponent for his next boxing bout. Nonetheless, the coach sees a fight with the latter as more interesting.
“We talked about what the landscape of PFL looks like for us and Renan Ferreira,” added Nicksick. “We looked at like what it might be if it’s Wilder, if there’s this mixed rules fight so there’s a couple of options out there. I told him, I was like, if we can get Wilder in an MMA scenario and then fight him in boxing, I think that’s the best-case scenario. That’d be pretty fun.”
Aside from Wilder, Anthony Joshua could also be another option for Ngannou after the boxer expressed interest in a fight, saying he could knock out the former UFC heavyweight champion. Nonetheless, Ngannou believes otherwise. As the Cameroonian fighter stressed in an earlier interview, he could take down boxers entering the MMA cage and even cause trouble in the boxing ring, even if it is not his realm.
“Even Tyson Fury said the same thing and Tyson Fury is better than Anthony Joshua,” Ngannou said on Club Shay Shay podcast. “What do I care about what people say?
“The good thing is I’m the one that can go everywhere comfortably,” Ngannou said. “My comfort zone will be the octagon, but I’m going to the ring and putting them in a bad spot in the ring.
“Because I have my territory [in MMA] where they cannot mess with me. If they come, they will need something like some favor, like, ‘I’ll give you this, we’ll take kicks out.’ I have to give him something. But when we step in the ring, they don’t give me anything and I still get them in trouble.”
