Tom Aspinall doesn’t appear to suppose Francis Ngannou ought to listed among the many world’s finest heavyweights.
On Saturday, October 19, ‘The Predator’ will make his long-awaited PFL debut because the promotion premieres its extremely anticipated Tremendous Fights pay-per-view collection in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. There, Ngannou will sq. off with the 2023 PFL heavyweight event winner Renan Ferreira.
‘Problema’ earned the chance to face Ngannou through a 21-second knockout of Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader in February.
With the UFC providing a lackluster APEX card this weekend, all eyes might be on Ngannou’s return to combined martial arts as he competes in opposition to ‘Problema’ for the not too long ago unveiled Tremendous Fights heavyweight world championship.
Tom Aspinall questions francis ngannou’s standing as an elite heavyweight combined martial artist
One fighter who may have his eyes on Saturday’s occasion is interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall. Talking with Ariel Helwani on Monday, the UK star made it clear that he has nothing however respect for Ngannou and the adversity he’s overcome. Nevertheless, Aspinall isn’t positive that Ngannou deserves to be within the dialog of elite heavyweight combined martial artists.
His take relies on the truth that Ngannou is competing in opposition to fighters not fairly on the UFC stage.
“I’ve a whole lot of respect for Francis,” Aspinall mentioned. “I’ve a whole lot of respect for him, and I actually admire his story. I actually admire what he’s performed within the sport, nevertheless it’s exhausting to debate proper now. The man he’s preventing, he’s not elite. Are you aware what I imply? And the blokes he’ll be preventing sooner or later aren’t elite, and it’s so simple as that. These aren’t the perfect guys on this planet.
“The man he’s preventing fought a pal of mine and a coaching companion of mine, Ante Delija (two years in the past), and Ante simply destroyed him inside a minute or two. Took him down, floor and pounded him and stopped him inside the first minute, and now this man’s preventing Francis Ngannou.
“So, the man isn’t elite, his opponent. Yeah, he’s huge. Yeah, he’s highly effective. Yeah, he may knock you out, however he’s not an elite heavyweight. I’m not disrespecting him. The elite guys aren’t within the PFL. The elite guys are within the UFC. It’s tough to say that (Ngannou) is the perfect heavyweight on this planet when he isn’t preventing elite guys proper now” (h/t BJPenn.com).
To date, Renan Ferreira is 13-3 in his MMA profession with 11 of his victories coming by means of knockout. He’s 7-1 beneath the PFL banner with three no-contests.
Since Ngannou’s final MMA combat in opposition to Ciryl Gane in January 2022, ‘Problema’ has competed eight instances.
