Francis Ngannou believes heavyweight MMA is being held back, and he’s pointing the finger at how promotions are handling the division.
Ngannou, who parted ways with the UFC in 2023 as heavyweight champion and has since boxed Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, said he sees ongoing issues affecting top big men in the sport.
"I think there is a lot of, I would say, mismanagement," Ngannou said. "There is a lot of mismanagement that sometimes gets stuff screwed up, and then that's where we are today. You see, even now, there's a lot of heavyweights out there like Tom Aspinall. He's having troubles with this."
He clarified that his criticism is aimed at promotions rather than individual representatives. "I think there's a mismanagement. You see all these situations that don't come and entertain. When I say mismanagement, I wasn't talking about, like, managers. I was talking mostly about the promotion. So I think there's something like that out there, which is not right."
Ngannou also reflected on his past strategy of chasing specific names, including a long-discussed clash with Jon Jones. "Nowadays with all these different companies, it's hard to just focus on a name like, 'I want this name, I want this guy,'" Ngannou said. "I've done that for a while, and it didn't work really good. We can take a good example of the Jon Jones fight that we've been talking about around six years since I fought Jairzinho Rozenstruik to the point that it's kind of annoying to talk about. So whatever fight makes sense, opponent makes sense to fight, just fight. Remember, the goal at the end of the day is to fight."
Ngannou is scheduled to fight Phillipe Lins at MVP's inaugural MMA event on May 16 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., after knocking out Renan Ferreira in the first round to win the PFL Super Fights heavyweight title in October 2024.
