Former UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou (17-3) might be in new home within the next week or so. ONE Championship‘s founder and CEO Chatri Sityodtong told Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour yesterday that people should expect some big news from Ngannou soon.
Sityodtong also revealed that he will meet with Ngannou on Saturday to discuss some things with Ngannou and will likely present the final offer from ONE Championship. He also said that when all is said and done, ONE will have the biggest offer on the table for the former heavyweight champion.
Ngannou has been shopping his services for the last few months after it was revealed in January that he was parting ways with the UFC and they were waiving all rights to match. Bellator, ONE, and PFL all jumped in and immediately started working to sign Ngannou.
BKFC also expressed interest, but they said that his asking price was not realistic. Ngannou told Ariel Helwani recently that he was narrowing his choices to ONE and PFL after it became apparent that Bellator wouldn’t work out.
ONE Championship or PFL?
PFL has remained confident in their talks with Ngannou, but Sityodtong seemed very confident in ONE’s ability to sign the star heavyweight. Sityodtong pointed to the competition level within the promotion, the fact that they will have the highest offer, and the fact that they give him the platform to fight in MMA and Boxing.
The opportunity to do both is something that’s very important to Ngannou. Ngannou has revealed that his next combat sports venture would likely be in boxing. Whoever he signs with for MMA would likely be a co-promoter for his boxing bout and Sityodtong says that ONE Championship would absolutely do that.
It appears that Ngannou has been fielding the final offers from all promotion’s involved. It’s not known yet whether or not PFL will get one more pitch to Ngannou after the meeting with Sityodtong this weekend. My guess is that an Ngannou announcement will likely come next week or the week after.