Deontay Wilder “most definitely” interested in boxing Francis Ngannou

If Francis Ngannou finds it difficult to lock in a boxing superfight against the mercurial Tyson Fury, he now has a solid backup in Deontay Wilder.

Ngannou is currently sitting out the rest of 2022 with a bad knee injury suffered in his heavyweight title fight against Ciryl Gane in January. That also happened to be the last bout on his UFC contract, and his management believes a five year sunset clause overrides the promotion’s standard champion clause. If they’re right, Francis Ngannou will become a free agent at the start of 2023.

‘The Predator’ has made it no secret that he plans to try his hand at boxing. Immediately following Tyson Fury’s TKO win over Dillian Whyte in April, Ngannou got into the ring and the two vowed to face each other in the future. And while that would be the biggest and most lucrative fight for Ngannou to make, it’s also one that he’s unlikely to win.

Fury is also difficult to pin down. Not only has he bounced in and out of retirement over the past several months, he seemingly side-stepped a highly anticipated fight with Anthony Joshua to face Derek Chisora instead.

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So it’s good news for Francis Ngannou that he has the attention of Deontay Wilder, who has made a career off his reputation as one of the hardest hitting men in boxing today. While no one can dismiss his power, his technique is hardly perfect, which makes a fight with the inexperienced Ngannou much more interesting to folks like Joe Rogan.

Ngannou and Wilder recently ran into each other at the UFC Performance Institute, where Wilder held an open workout. In an interview with Insider, Wilder said he’d “most definitely” fight Ngannou if the opportunity arose.

“It was mentioned to me before, and Al [Haymon, Wilder’s promoter] agreed,” Wilder said. “There’s the old saying, ‘If it makes dollars, it makes sense.’ And he agreed as well.”

“I think that would be an intriguing fight, and it would be a fight that would bring a lot of interest. Who knows, we may see that fight in the future. And if we do? Oh, boy. What a fight to see. The future is bright!”

Wilder is coming off two back-to-back losses against Tyson Fury, the first losses of his 42-2-1 career. He fights Robert Helenius on October 15th, and clearly hopes to re-establish himself as a fearsome knockout artist and championship contender. There’s no doubt that if he wins, he could be a frontrunner to face Francis Ngannou when ‘The Predator’ recovers from his knee injury and feels ready to make his boxing debut.

What do you think, PENN Nation? Does a Francis Ngannou vs. Deontay Wilder boxing match hold more interest to you than Ngannou vs. Fury? Or would you rather Francis keep things in the cage? Let us know in the comments!