Dan Hardy needs to see Francis Ngannou deal with MMA.
Ngannou (18-3) claimed the inaugural superfight heavyweight title by knocking out Renan Ferreira (13-4) within the first spherical of the PFL: Battle of the Giants major occasion in October.
“The Predator” remains to be searching for mega fights in boxing, however Hardy thinks he’s higher off within the cage. He sees the winner of Friday’s heavyweight event last between Denis Goltsov (35-8) and Oleg Popov (19-1) on the 2024 PFL Championships being his potential subsequent opponent.
“I believe it makes essentially the most sense to me,” Hardy advised MMA Junkie Radio. “You’ve acquired two guys right here – two spectacular Russian fighters which can be each at completely different ends of their profession. Goltsov has tried this path a number of occasions. He’s not been profitable, however you possibly can’t deny that he’s acquired the talents to beat everyone within the division – it’s only a case of him doing it successively on the best way to $1 million. He’s in all probability acquired the most effective jab within the heavyweight division proper now, and I really feel like that may very well be an actual downside for Popov on this combat.
“However, I additionally anticipate Popov to be sturdy bodily and mentally. Fedor (Emelianenko) in his nook, he’s going to be telling him to get his head off the middle line and are available excessive and across the sides and hold working his wrestling recreation. Popov is on the longest win streak within the heavyweight division proper now – 18 fights, 19 fights. If he’s in a position to come by means of this and beat Goltsov, that’s a transparent contender for my part due to the spectacular streak that he’s on in addition to the truth that he could have simply received the world championship for this 12 months. It’s the one which makes essentially the most sense.
“I believe there are different choices on the market, however no matter Ngannou does, I might fairly him do it in combined martial arts as a result of I believe we see the most effective of him. He’s extra free and simply far more harmful in combined martial arts.”
Ngannou has laced up the boxing gloves twice. He knocked down Tyson Fury and pushed him to the restrict in a controversial choice loss in October 2023. Nonetheless, his second look was completed by Anthony Joshua in a Spherical 2 knockout loss in March.
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