Francis Ngannou is no stranger to crossover fights. In order to prove himself as the premier heavyweight across all combat sports, The Predator has turned to boxing previously, even though that small stint was rather unsuccessful with a 0-2 record. Recently, the 38-year-old once again tried to jump ship by challenging UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones. But the idea was immediately turned down by Dana White in a post-UFC 316 conference. Now, a fresh challenge has roared onto the scene, ready to test his mettle.
Ahead of the GLORY 100 event, Rico Verhoeven, often regarded as one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers in the world, called out the Cameroonian. A fight that even Ngannou has desired for the longest time.
In a video uploaded by DAZN Sports on their Instagram channel, Verhoeven, ahead of his Artem Vakhitov bout this Saturday, shared his opinion on the PFL heavyweight champion. “You can just tell me what you think about this person: Francis Ngannou?” asked the interviewer. Seizing the opportunity, the ‘Prince of Kickboxing’ laid down the challenge. “The first thing that pops up is a crossover fight. I would love it,” he said.
The Dutch kickboxer further added, “I think that is something that hasn’t been done before because we had the boxing world exchange with the MMA world. That’s fun. But we never had kickboxers in the mix, and they are way closer to each other,” emphasizing the scale of the potential clash. The GLORY heavyweight champion is not wrong, as we have seen Israel Adesanya and Alex “Poatan” Pereira switching successfully from kickboxing to the MMA world.
A clash between two of the most dominant heavyweight champions will attract the audience. At least that is what Verhoeven thinks as he concluded, “I think that is a fight where people will get excited for.” While the clash seems tough to make, we have seen crazier things happen in the combat world. Furthermore, when Francis Ngannou himself is crazy over the matchup, it can be a reality.
Francis Ngannou: The crossover king
Last year, in an interview with Ariel Helwani, the 38-year-old MMA star revealed that he used to train with Verhoeven. “We’re not friends. I mean, we met once at the gym. Yeah, we’re friends, but not to the extent that we cannot fight each other. We’re gym friends,” he stated.
Even before the interview, Ngannou had called out Verhoeven indirectly, and on the show, he made it official. “Send me a deal,” he declared. According to reports, even PFL and GLORY were sold on the idea and were negotiating the bout for a later date in 2025.
However, with Artem Vakhitov returning to GLORY, challenging Verhoeven to a title fight, the plans had to be scrapped. Maybe, if the Prince of Kickboxing successfully defends his title, the two companies can resume the talks. After all, this is a fight that every combat sports fan will have their eyes on. Furthermore, with the Jon Jones fight almost out of question, this is a deal that ‘Predator’ would love to have.
What do you think about a potential crossover fight between Francis Ngannou and Rico Verhoeven? Let us know your thoughts down below.
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