Francis Ngannou’s PFL Debut Failed to Impress ONE Champ: ‘He’s Not the Best Until He Faces Me’

One would assume that Francis Ngannou’s performances and achievements inside the ring and the cage is beyond dispute. However, The Predator’s victory on return to MMA, knocking out Renan Ferreira in the PFL, has failed to impress ONE Championship’s heavyweight king Anatoly Malykhin. The Russian, in fact, has challenged Ngannou to a cross-promotion fight in 2025.

Malykhin has a problem with Ngannou’s self-bestowed, the ‘best fighter on the planet’ crown.

“He cannot and should not be saying that until he faces me,” said Malykhin. “Of course, I watched the fight. and actually I didn’t see anything special, there was nothing too impressive in the fight. He didn’t surprise me with anything.”

The 36-year-old Russian has been chasing the money fight against the elusive Cameroonian for quite some time. Now with the former UFC champion moving to the PFL, a cross-promotion event is a possibility.

Malykhin and Ngannou are two of the best heavyweight champions in the world at the moment, making their matchup pretty lucrative.

Ngannou has been unbeaten as an heavyweight champ. When he left the UFC due to pay disputes, he still held the belt which he won beating the promotion’s greatest-ever heavyweight, Stipe Miocic. After the UFC, he appeared in the boxing ring, fighting and losing the much-celebrated bouts against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. He returned to MMA at the PFL last month, winning the promotion’s inaugural Super Fights Heavyweight Championship.

Despite the illustrious resume, ONE Championship CEO, Chatri Sityodtong, is not too impressed by Ngannou’s prowess inside the cage.

ONE CEO warns of a one-sided Ngannou vs. Malykhin fight

“I don’t think it [Ngannou’s fight vs. Malykhin] would be competitive,” Sityodtong told MMA Fighting after the Cameroonian’s boxing bout against Joshua.

Sityodtong knows that Ngannou is a great striker and has one-punch KO power. But he lacks the ground game to match Malykhin’s.

” I mean, genuinely [he has] blue belt level jiu-jitsu and no wrestling. Anatoly would take him down in a heartbeat. I don’t think it would be competitive, just to be very blunt, and I’m speaking as a lifelong martial artist. … I’ve been doing 40 years of Muay Thai and 15 years of jiu-jitsu. I’m just speaking from personal experience and I’m trying to be objective.”

Asserting that wrestling is the one discipline that allows a fighter to control the game, Sityodtong added:

“If a wrestler wants to keep it standing, he keeps it standing. If he wants to take you down or she wants to take you down, they’ll take you down, especially a world-class wrestler — a Russian national team wrestler like Anatoly Malykhin. (But) we’ve always been open (to cross promotion).”

Ngannou, of course, would disagree, and would want to prove his case. He has proven his striking capabilities even as a boxer, taking on the likes of Fury. Besides, he has been working on his ground game for years now and has evidently improved in that department as well.

It would certainly be unfounded to believe he isn’t a threat. That debate, of course, can only be settled one way. So, will Ngannou take on Malykhin?