Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou is close to signing with ONE Championship or the PFL, and ONE heavyweight king Arjan Bhullar is ready to welcome him to Asia.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou revealed that he is “very close” to signing with either ONE Championship or the PFL for his post-boxing run, and ONE heavyweight king Arjan Bhullar would be more than happy to welcome him to Asia. “Singh”, who finally faces interim titleholder Anatoly Malykhin in a title unification bout on July 15, said in an interview that he’s not one to feel fearful of an opponent, even if it’s one with massive knockout power like Ngannou.
“He’s conquered the West, let’s bring him out to the East,” Bhullar said. “I have no problem with this. People are scared of him as well, but if you’re a fighter and you’re a champion, it doesn’t matter who it is, you step up. That’s what a champion does, win, lose or draw. And I have never run away from a fight. I have never shied away. I’ve lost, but I am not that guy. There’s no one that can say Arjan Bhullar didn’t step up. I might win, I might lose, but I will always step on that line, I will always sign the contract. I’m a man at the end of the day. That’s all you have when the sport is done, it’s the respect. Go for him.”
“I hope he comes out East. I see you, Francis. The whole sport is watching. I hope he does well in boxing. It’ll be good for all the athletes if he makes a lot of money outside the UFC. It will be very good. I hope he’s successful doing what he’s doing, what he’s wanting to do. He seems to be in a happy place, all of those things as a competitor. Let’s get it on.” As for as the potential match-up, Bhullar said he seems a lot of similarities between Ngannou and Malykhin, an undefeated 35-year-old Russian with a 100 percent finishing rate in 12 professional MMA wins.
“He was running through everybody and that didn’t work, and he didn’t know how to adjust against Stipe [Miocic],” Bhullar said. “There was a big hole, Stipe exploited it. And then same with [Derrick] Lewis after that. Then he had to learn to be patient and adjust and add some kicks and all those types of things, and some grappling. I mean, the grappling won him the fight. He was zero grappling when he first lost to Stipe, and then against Stipe he defended the takedown. I actually see similarities in Anatoly because of that. There’s a lot of questions he hasn’t answered yet.”
“But aside from that, he’s very dangerous,” he continued. “Obviously, he’s one punch, one kill type of guy. Until the end of the fight, he’s dangerous. He’s gotten better. He’s made adjustments, he’s more well-rounded, he’s much more dangerous now than he’s ever been. All of those things are accurate. But there are levels to grappling. And even those levels to striking. I don’t get hit. I’m very good at being evasive. You see my face after every one of my fights, not touched. Everyone is saying Anatoly is a killer, they were saying that about Brandon Vera as well, and Brandon Vera has eight limbs to hit you with, Anatoly has two hands. And Francis would have two hands.”