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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Donn Davis is happy for Francis Ngannou’s success, even if it means PFL will have to wait a little longer to have him.

At the beginning of 2023, PFL signed Ngannou to a lucrative partnership deal, allowing Ngannou to pursue his interests in boxing with an expected debut in 2024. Ngannou did just that, losing a controversial split decision to lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in October. Now he’s set to face former heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua in a 10-round boxing match this Friday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

This obviously pushed back the idea of an early 2024 PFL debut for Ngannou, and led fans to speculate on whether “The Predator” will ever compete in the SmartCage given his boxing success. But Davis is not concerned.

“I have no worry about my partner being too successful,” Davis said recently on The MMA Hour. “This is like having a brother that is too rich and he’s not going to take you out to Cabo on his private plane. Could I be so lucky to have this brother? I love our partner Francis Ngannou being so successful! I love it! Do I have any worries about him fighting for us? No. Is it going to take longer to schedule? Sure. Do we have to get his opponent way better? Of course!

“But is that going to make the fight even more exciting? One hundred percent! Francis’ success makes our task of getting him an opponent harder, but it’s going to make his fight even bigger for PFL. It will happen, 100 percent.”

But the question is when? Ngannou maintains that he does intend to return to MMA in the future, however, he also stated he intends to rematch Tyson Fury after the Joshua fight, and then, depending on how the Joshua fight goes, potentially rematch Joshua as well. That’s at least one more boxing match and possibly two, and if Ngannou wins any of those, even more opportunities open up for him inside the squared circle.

Even so, Davis steadfastly asserts that this is a good problems to have.

“I always like to say, what’s the worst-case scenario here?” Davis said. “My brother says, ‘I’m going to take you on the G5 to Cabo but I can’t do it until March 2025?’ Do you go, ‘Nah! I just want to take my own winnebago.’ No! You wait until February of 2025. Worst-case scenario, we have the biggest fight in MMA in February of 2025 with Francis. That’s our worst-case scenario? Sign me up! That we have the greatest fighter in the world? Sign me up for that. That he shocked boxing and he’s opening up PFL Africa for us? Sign me up for that.

“Everybody always likes to look at the bad stuff. They always talk about, ‘You don’t have any opponents for him.’ UFC doesn’t have any opponents for him! There’s only one guy in the world: Jon Jones. There’s only one opponent for Francis Ngannou: Jon Jones. … It’s Jon Jones or nobody. [Renan Ferreira] is a better fight than anything over there, but none of it is Jon Jones-Francis Ngannou. That’s a one of one, bespoke, custom, heavyweight fight. Francis is now in that league. He is above everything.”

And who knows? Davis suggests that with both PFL and UFC partnering with Saudi Arabia now, on top of their existing partnerships with ESPN, maybe the unthinkable can even happen and Francis Ngannou vs. Jon Jones can finally take place.

“To me, [it’s a good thing] when the biggest things in the world get bigger. Because that’s what’s happening. The biggest thing was Francis and Jon Jones. Then it got bigger, because Francis now is better, and Francis now is more exciting,” Davis said. “So the biggest thing got bigger. Sometimes, that puts so much pressure, the crucible busts, and it busts in such a way that great things happen. That’s how great companies get built, that’s how great Super Bowl teams get made. Things just bust. I just think in 2025, things could happen that we can’t imagine today.”

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Yan’s comeback
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MMA Mania brings you Sound & Pound. An original podcast that features previews, recaps, lists, prospects, and a Q&A. Oh, and a cool movie club.

MMA Mania brings you Sound & Pound. An original podcast that features previews, recaps, lists, prospects, and a Q&A. Oh, and a cool movie club. All brought to you by yours truly, Alex Behunin and Drake Riggs.

This week is a special big preview of UFC 299 and the 2024 Oscars. Watch it live at 3:00 P.M. EST every Tuesday, or on replay, in the player above on our YouTube channel.

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 299 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET (simulcast on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET), before the pay-per-view (PPV) main card start time at 10 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+).

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 299: “O’Malley vs. Vera 2” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Conor McGregor just wants to fight.

The former two-division UFC champion hasn’t competed since 2021 when he suffered a devastating broken leg in a trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier but he’s been rumored for a comeback for the past year. He initially signed on to star on The Ultimate Fighter with plans to face fellow coach Michael Chandler sometime in 2023.

Because he still had to re-enter the UFC’s anti-doping program following his long absence, McGregor’s return was pushed back yet again but it appeared the stars were aligning for a potential headline spot at the historic UFC 300 card in April. That didn’t happen and then suddenly McGregor announced plans to face Chandler on June 29, which is the date for UFC 303 to cap off this year’s International Fight Week.

UFC CEO Dana White threw cold water on that idea as well and stated that he hoped to have McGregor back by the fall but nothing was done yet. Now McGregor has addressed the constant delays booking his next fight and he admits it’s having a negative effect on him.

“Still holding hope for June 29,” McGregor said about his next fight while answering questions via Instagram Stories. “Lack of action on it, however, is now causing lack of enthusiasm. I need a decision soon. I am the most tested athlete under this new regime. Yet no date to fight.

“The game is a bit lackluster also at present, which isn’t helping. I hope these next few cards pop and I get a date. Eliminate distractions and begin real work towards it.”

There’s never been an official reason given for McGregor’s delayed return to the cage outside of White touting the fortune that the Irish superstar amassed during his career has possibly stood in the way of fighting again.

“Conor McGregor doesn’t need the f****** money,” White said in February. “So, when you don’t need the money, it’s not as easy — I mean, Khabib [Nurmagomedov] doesn’t need the money. Khabib retired.”

McGregor didn’t comment on White’s reasoning for the delay in booking his next fight but it appears he’s still trying to make his return happen sooner rather than later.

In fact, McGregor’s Q&A happened exactly eight years to the day that he suffered his first loss in the UFC after falling to Nate Diaz on March 5, 2016. McGregor avenged that loss five months later when he beat Diaz by majority decision in an all-time classic at UFC 202.

Talks about a trilogy have simmered for years but McGregor has never had the chance to finish the rubber match with Diaz, especially after Diaz exited the UFC in free agency.

Just recently, Diaz posted about making his return to the UFC for the upcoming card at The Sphere in Las Vegas in September, which takes place during Mexican Independence Day weekend. It seems that caught McGregor’s attention as well when mapping out his ideal schedule for 2024.

“I wish for this on Mexican Independence Day in The Sphere,” McGregor said about the Diaz trilogy. “Chandler June, Diaz September. I have let this be known.”

Whether McGregor gets his wish or not remains to be seen but as much as he wants to return to the UFC, he’s also keeping a watchful eye on opportunities in boxing as well.

McGregor previously pursued a matchup against multi-time boxing champion Manny Pacquiao and it looks like that’s still a fight he wants, especially now that Saudi Arabia has started paying out huge sums of money to land some of the biggest fights in combat sports.

“It’s still there,” McGregor said about facing Pacquiao. “Could be December. The Saudis are game changers in the market 100 percent.”

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Francis Ngannou dropped some game on an unsuspecting DAZN reporter during Tuesday’s open workouts in Riyadh.

On Friday, March 8, ‘The Predator’ will return to the squared circle for a high-stakes boxing match with top-ranked WBC heavyweight contender Anthony Joshua inside the Kingdom Arena. The bout will go down five months removed from his critically acclaimed boxing debut against Tyson Fury. Though Ngannou came up controversially short on the scorecards, he delivered a star-making performance, knocking down ‘The Gypsy King’ in the third round.

Ahead of their ‘Knockout Chaos’ headliner, Ngannou stepped inside the ring to show off some of his skills during an open workout session. Immediately following his time in the ring, Ngannou spoke with a DAZN reporter who appeared to catch the former UFC champ’s interest in more ways than one.

“I have something else to do… which is you,” Ngannou said in response to a question, eliciting a laugh from the interviewer.

Clearly, Ngannou is feeling some kind of way after going through another grueling training camp.

But before he can get himself some of that good-good, Ngannou will have to take on one of the baddest men in the sweet science. Anthony Joshua carries with him a record of 27-3 with 24 of his victories coming by way of knockout. After suffering back-to-back losses against Oleksandr Usyk, Joshua bounced back with three straight wins over Jermaine Franklin, Robert Helenius, and Otto Wallin.

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With UFC 299 just days away, more and more fighters are weighing in on the main event rematch between bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley and Marlon Vera.  One of those breaking down he matchup and revealing their pick was former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker.  

Vera (23-8-1) is ranked fifth in the division but holds a win over O’Malley.  “Chito” stopped O’Malley in the first round of their UFC 254 bout back in August 2020.  It’s a loss O’Malley (17-1, 1 NC) wants to avenge.  

“I am so uncertain because I do believe his is going to be a fight that is dictated by who turns up,” Whittaker said on the MMArcade podcast.  “It is so hard to put a pin on.  I will say, though, as a betting man, if I had to favor someone, I’m going to favor Sean O’Malley.”  

“Almost every one of his fights I put him down as my pick because he has an uncanny way to find chins.  He has impeccable timing and accuracy with those shots that have the power to switch people off.  He’s so hard to get a read on because of his movement, his stance switching, and his spacing is near perfect,” Whittaker continued.  

While Whittaker may be favoring O’Malley, he was quick to point out that Vera could win.  He’s already beaten O’Malley once.  

“As we saw in their first fight, if you’re a dog and you make it a dog fight and you make it aggressive and violent, Vera is there for that.  Vera is very much there for that type of fight,” Whittaker said.  “If Sean doesn’t have as much success in finding the chin, or doing the damage and earning the respect he needs to keep that space where he can kind of play in the range that he wants, he not going to have a lot of fun because Vera – You can see it in Vera’s eyes.  You can see it in the way he fights – He’s a dog.  He’s going to get in there and he wants violence.”     

“I would favor Sean.  He’s my pick for this fight but I can very much see Vera just being a dog.  Much like the Petr Yan fight, it becoming a much closer and harder fight than Sean is used to.  And over five rounds, I don’t know what that looks like,” Whittaker said.  

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