‘I feel like the underdog’… Francis Ngannou claims Renan Ferreira is his toughest test so far and feels like the underdog ahead of his PFL debut

This coming Saturday, former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou returns to Saudi Arabia as he finally makes his PFL debut against fellow giant, Renan Ferreira.

Despite having signed a multi-fight MMA deal with the PFL last year, former UFC heavyweight king, Francis Ngannou is yet to make his promotional debut, but that all changes this coming Saturday.

After taking his talents to the world of boxing where he fought Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, ‘The Predator’ decided that now was the time to return to the cage after picking up two devastating losses.

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty ImagesFrancis Ngannou reveals the mistake he made against Anthony Joshua that he won’t make againWith this event set to be the biggest in PFL’s history, it goes down from the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Ngannou’s last fight against Joshua also went down in the Kingdom Arena.

Following that fight, the 38-year-old stated that something didn’t feel right on the night and he put it down to the surroundings.

Ahead of his PFL debut, Ngannou admitted that he believes he got to Saudi Arabia too early ahead of his boxing fight and he won’t be making that same mistake this time around against Renan Ferreira.

“I think here they have the time and schedule proper and I don’t have to go to places and wait for hours before the event starts and before fight week starts, for example, this (interview) is a fight week obligation so I don’t have to show up somewhere and then wait for one hour or two hours before it starts otherwise I’m calling it now, I’m done,” Ngannou told Ariel Helwani on The Ariel Helwani Show.

Joshua recently fought against fellow British heavyweight, Daniel Dubois, and Dubois claimed that Joshua turned up late to all of the events they were obligated to attend. Despite that, Ngannou has blamed it on the organizers of the event as opposed to Joshua.

“(I got there too early) on everything, on the fight week too… I think it was more the organizers. Even before fight night, it was the entire week,” Ngannou added.

Ngannou is yet to travel to Saudi Arabia for his fight against the Brazilian heavyweight champion.

THE PREDATOR: Who is Francis Ngannou? Inside the former UFC heavyweight champion’s journey from poverty to combat sports superstardomNgannou believes he is the underdog heading into PFL debutAlthough Ferreira may not be a household name to the majority of MMA fans, the Brazilian stands as one of Ngannou’s toughest tests so far having won the PFL 2023 tournament.

With ‘The Predator’ having not fought in MMA since 2022, he believes he is the underdog heading into ‘The Battle of the Giants’.

“We don’t fight names we fight talent and let me tell you something, this guy has talent, and from all my opponents I think he’s definitely going to be one of my toughest fights, lets just be serious here.

“For me, as I’m taking it, he’s very serious, I see this fight as the underdog, I feel like the underdog, yeah,” Ngannou admitted.

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