Figuring Out Which MMA Promotion Makes The Most Sense For Francis Ngannou

Midway into the first month of 2023, the world of mixed martial arts was already rocked to its core, with the massive news of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) releasing one of its biggest stars and most dominant champions in heavyweight knockout artist Francis Ngannou.

UFC president Dana White announced on Saturday that the promotion and Ngannou failed to agree on a new deal and they decided to grant the Cameroonian his release, allowing him to sign anywhere he wants.

White likewise revealed that the newly-vacated UFC heavyweight championship will be contested by the returning former light heavyweight king Jon Jones and No. 1-ranked contender Cyril Gane at UFC 285 on March 4th.

While there's already clarity as to where the UFC's heavyweight division will be headed in the next few months, perhaps the biggest question to come out of this is more geared towards the former champion's next move.

Where will Francis Ngannou be taking his scary knockout power and which promotion will gain marquee credibility by signing arguably the best heavyweight in mixed martial arts (MMA) today?

During last weekend's press conference, White repeatedly expressed his belief that Ngannou wanted more money without necessarily wanting to take the risk of facing top-caliber competition.

"Francis is in a place right now, where he doesn't want to take a lot of risks. He feels like he's in a good position, where he could fight lesser opponents and make more money, so we're gonna let him do that," the American promoter stated.

Whether or not this is really the case remains to be seen, but for what it's worth, it's hard to blame Ngannou for wanting more at this point in his career.

At 36 years old, "The Predator" is obviously no longer a young up-and-comer, but it's also obvious that he is the biggest fish in MMA's heavyweight pond.

So which organization does end up getting Ngannou?

Within hours of the news of Ngannou's release breaking, outfits the Professional Fighters League (PFL) Bareknuckle Fighting Championships (BKFC) and Bellator MMA have all expressed their intention to bring in Ngannou.

In terms of competition, Bellator likely offers the best option, with the likes of Ryan Bader, Valentin Moldavsky, Linton Vassell and Fedor Emelianenko ready to welcome Ngannou to the fold.

As for BKFC, the promotion could be a refreshing environment for one of the most lethal strikers in the game today, but it's unlikely that the company has enough to offer Ngannou to actually bring him in.

While ONE Championship could likely cough up the money to bring in Ngannou, it's hard to imagine the Cameroonian star doing anything less than dominate the promotion's shallow heavyweight division.

Arjhan Bhullar and Anatoly Malykhin are solid competitors, but Ngannou seems to be on a different level.

Chatri Sityodtong—ONE Championship's chairman and CEO—was quoted in March of last year, stressing that signing Ngannou is not on his list of priorities.

The Thai-Japanese executive went on the claim that Ngannou would "get smoked" by his heavyweight counterparts in ONE Championship.

"I like Francis Ngannou but I think our Heavyweights would smoke him. He's just not a complete fighter. If you ask any expert martial artist, you look at Anatoly Malykhin, for example—Russian national pedigree wrestler, dynamite in his hands. Much faster than Francis, much better ground game, black-belt level. He was also a submission champion in Europe. You look at Arjan Bhullar, wrestling, boxing," Chatri explained.

"Francis is not very impressive on the ground. He's got big, looping punches, he's not as technical of a boxer as Anatoly or even Arjan."

Perhaps the organization that could make the most sense for Ngannou in terms of a competition and compensation standpoint would be PFL.

The league's sports-style tournament format could work in favor of Ngannou as he can fight—and get paid—our times a year and then potentially take home a million-dollar purse.

On the side, Ngannou could also finally pursue his dreams of entering the boxing ring, much like how PFL has allowed Claressa Shields to continue competing in both sports.

It's also a huge possibility that Ngannou decides to leave MMA altogether, jump to boxing, and go for the biggest payday that he'll ever get in combat sports.

A dream matchup between Ngannou and boxing heavyweight titleholder Tyson Fury has the potential to fill an arena and draw in a lot of pay-per-view buys.

Wherever Ngannou decides to head next, it's safe to say that seeing him become world champion again is more likely than not.