Who's the baddest man on the planet? That could be a three-way tie between UFC Heavyweight Champions Jon Jones, Tom Aspinall and Francis Ngannou. The latter never lost his title to anyone, deciding to vacate the belt to pursue free agency once his UFC contract was up in 2023.
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After some time away from MMA, boxing the likes of Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua in back-to-back super-fights, Ngannou is now set for his long-awaited PFL debut this weekend in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, against a much less-established name in 6'8" Renan Ferreira, the promotion's heavyweight champion.
While it might not be marketed as such, the lineal MMA heavyweight championship is on the line as Ngannou dethroned Stipe Miocic in 2021 before unifying the UFC Heavyweight title against interim champ Ciryl Gane the following year in what was his last fight under the banner.
Two years removed, Ngannou believes he's still the best heavyweight in the world. Though the new UFC champion in his wake, Jon Jones and interim titleholder Tom Aspinall might have to disagree with "The Predator" as he writes another chapter of his career elsewhere.
"I have a lot of respect for [Francis] and I really appreciate his story. I really appreciate what he's done in the sport. But it's hard to debate right now," Aspinall said on The Ariel Helwani Show, when asked who was the best heavyweight in the world.
"The guy he's fighting, he's not elite and the guys he'll be fighting in the future aren't elite and it's as simple as that. These aren't the best guys in the world. The guy he's fighting fought a friend of mine and a training partner of mine Ante Delija last year, and Ante just destroyed him within a minute or two. Took him down, ground and pounded him and stopped him within the first minute. And now this guy's fighting Francis Ngannou. So, the guy isn't elite."
Ferreira, 34, has never looked better in his career, winning his last four fights by first-round knockout, his last win coming over Bellator Heavyweight Champion Ryan Bader in just 19 seconds in February.
Besides Bader, a former UFC contender, there's not much name value on the resume of Ferreira, who still has a lot more to prove if he wants to be considered the best of the best at heavyweight.
"I'm not disrespecting him. That's just my honest opinion. The elite guys are not in PFL, the elite guys are in the UFC," Aspinall said of Ferreira.
"It's difficult to say that [Ngannou is] the best heavyweight in the world when he isn't fighting elite guys right now. The guy's nowhere near top ten. Yeah, he's a big dude, big athletic guy, but he's not a top ten guy."
In contrast to Renan Ferreira, Francis Ngannou fought ranked competition in the UFC for most of his career, stopping Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos, Jairzinho Rozenstruik all in a matter of seconds to earn a second shot at arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time Stipe Miocic in 2021, making the most out of it with a picture-perfect second-round knockout.