Best Heavyweight: Ngannou/Ferreira Winner Vs. Aspinall
The best heavyweight in the world is choice between the winner of Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Ferreira and Tom Aspinall.
Dan Hardy, the PFL commentator, made those comments as Ngannou fights Ferreira on October 19 for his PFL debut. He left the UFC last year after contract talks broke down. He has not had an MMA bout since 2022, when he beat Ciryl Gane at UFC 270. Since then, Ngannou has had two boxing fights, losing to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
He has plenty to prove then, as he faces Ferreira, who is in top form. Renan is the PFL Heavyweight Champion. Once the PFL took over Bellator, he faced their champion, Ryan Bader, on the PFL vs. Bellator Champs card. He stopped Bader from becoming the best in the organization. Meanwhile, Aspinall is the current interim heavyweight champion.
Contenders
He stopped Sergei Pavlovich and Curtis Blaydes in his last two fights, putting him in a position to fight for the title in his next bout. Jon Jones is the current heavyweight champion, and he will fight Stipe Miocic next. Bones withdrew from the original Stipe fight after suffering a pectoral muscle injury at UFC 295.
Dana White has confirmed that Miocic will retire, while Jones could do the same. Jones has only had one bout in four years when he beat Gane last year at UFC 285, leading many to say that Aspinall is the best heavyweight. Hardy felt the choice between the best heavyweights was clear.
“We’re potentially going to find out who the best heavyweight is on the planet. There’s a lot of conversation on the other side around Tom Aspinall, Jon Jones, Miocic, etc. Right now for me, Tom Aspinall is head & shoulders above Jon Jones and Stipe just based on his activity.
“But, then you compare Tom Aspinall to Ngannou and Ferreira and that might be the fight to determine who the best heavyweight is on the planet, the winner of the Ngannou-Ferreira fight and then Tom Aspinall. It’s exciting. As an MMA fan, I love speculating about these things, it’s very rare that we get to match a current PFL champion against the heavyweight king of the world, Francis Ngannou,” Hardy said
Will They Fight ?
Despite this, the only way to settle the dispute would be to get Jones to fight Aspinall and Ngannou. White remains confident that Jones will fight the winner, rejecting claims that Bones is ducking Aspinall. Jones has suggested that he prefers a fight with Alex Pereira as it is a bigger bout, which White has shut down.
Meanwhile, White has dismissed working with Ngannou when he left the UFC. White even shut down doing a co-promotion with the PFL to make the fight. However, the increasing Saudi influence in the PFL and the UFC increases the prospects of the fight. If there is enough demand and money on the table, the debate could be settled once and for all.
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