Francis Ngannou signs MMA deal with PFL
The former UFC heavyweight champion, aka “The Predator”, Francis Ngannou, has reportedly signed a deal with the Professional Fighters League, which would make him the highest-paid heavyweight in MMA. Francis Ngannou, now 36, last appeared in the octagon in January last year and successfully defended his UFC heavyweight title, but since then he has been out of the game due to some issues with the UFC agreement and also because of his knee injury. But now he is ready to come back again in the cage, but this time representing a different league.
The new deal has met the majority of the pre-conditions of Francis Ngannou that the UFC failed to provide him due to which he left the UFC, and one of them was to have the right to take the boxing match while fighting for the UFC, and this condition is supposedly fulfilled by the PFL. Yet there are some more conditions that are needed to be met by the PFL, but they are negotiating those with him, and once done, Francis Ngannou would become one of the highest-paid heavyweights in MMA.
Ngannou made his UFC debut in 2015 against Luis Henrique Barbosa de Oliveira. He won his debut fight by knockout, and he continued his winning run, but when he got the title shot against one of the greatest heavyweights, Stipe Miocic, he got his first defeat in the UFC, where his poor wrestling skills and limited cardio strength were exposed. But he bounced back hard and worked on his weak areas to knock out fighters again, and this time he outclassed every fighter that came his way. During his second title shot, he knocked out Stipe Miocic cold in the second round of the fight and became the UFC heavyweight champion. Ngannou had 17 wins and three losses in his UFC career.