‘I’ve been working on some little tricks’: Francis Ngannou ready to show off new tools in MMA return

It’s been close to three years since Francis Ngannou has fought in the cage.

On Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia the former UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou will make his debut for the PFL against Renan Ferreira, in a bout that follows Ngannou’s two-fight sojourn into boxing in which he fought two of this generation’s finest heavyweights in Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

But despite spending much of the past couple of years focussing on expanding his arsenal in the stand-up game, Saturday’s fight with Ferreira represents Ngannou’s return to the larger skillset of MMA — and as such, he says that the fight may not be the stand-up war that many are expecting.

“He moves a lot and he has good grappling. I mean, he is a black belt,” Ngannou said of his upcoming opponent during a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, via MMA News.

“Unless the fight goes longer — if the fight goes past two rounds, I think it’s likely going to end up a decision. Otherwise, if it stays inside two rounds, I think it’s a knockout or why not a submission?”

He added: “You know, I’m not a black belt, but I’m not bad too. I’ve been working on some little tricks.”

Ngannou’s last fight under mixed martial arts rules, against Ciryl Gane in January 2022 in what proved to be his final bout with the UFC, was also expected to be a battle between two of the division’s best strikers. Instead Ngannou, who was nursing a knee injury ahead of the fight, employed a grapple-heavy approach against the Frenchman to win a five-round decision.

It remains to be seen what type of gameplan Ngannou will bring with him to the cage this time around but either way, fireworks are expected.