Mike Tyson and Francis Ngannou are in Saudi Arabia, a pair of ferocious heavyweights with a watch on the championship belt.
For Tyson, his position is ceremonial. The retired boxing nice is ready to current the winner of three title fights within the inaugural PFL vs. Bellator: Champs card with a customized championship belt.
For Ngannou, it’s private. The former UFC heavyweight champion says he’ll attend the bouts to confront the winner of the heavyweight superfight between Renan Ferreira and Ryan Bader. Ngannou may lastly make his Professional Fighters League debut a while this 12 months in opposition to Ferreira or Bader.
Tyson and Ngannou are readily available for the defining card in PFL’s 5-plus 12 months historical past.
The MMA promotion that has churned by way of Olympic champions and UFC retreads now has its strongest roster but for its first pay-per-view present that pits Bellator champs in opposition to PFL’s champs on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. PFL bought Bellator from Paramount Global in November in its boldest try but to make a run on the trade chief, UFC.
It’s additionally the primary main MMA card held in Saudi Arabia. PFL is the one group in MMA with a sports activities-season format, the place fighters compete in a daily season, playoffs, and championship every year.
“We are the innovative, aggressive, disruptive company in MMA,” PFL founder and chairman Donn Davis mentioned. “This sport is very young. It has a lot of room to evolve, a lot of room to grow.”
Ngannou is the centerpiece of PFL’s anticipated development.
He was nonetheless UFC heavyweight champion when contract talks collapsed final 12 months with the corporate as soon as the African fighter mentioned his calls for for medical health insurance and private sponsorships have been rejected. UFC President Dana White stripped Ngannou of the belt in January 2023. Ngannou reached a take care of PFL final May that included a job as chairman and fairness proprietor in PFL Africa.
Ngannou had put MMA on the backburner following his dalliance with boxing. The 37-12 months-previous fighter floored boxing pundits when he took reigning WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury the ten-spherical distance. Ngannou narrowly misplaced the battle in Saudi Arabia in entrance of a crowd that included Kanye West, Eminem and Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ngannou is scheduled to battle former boxing heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on March 8 in Riyadh.
But after that, Davis mentioned Ngannou will make his anticipated PFL debut.
“It’s 100% Francis will fight PFL MMA this year,” Davis mentioned.
PFL’s suggestion that Ngannou battle UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones on a co-promoted card was rejected and ridiculed by White. Ngannou as an alternative figures to battle Ferreira (12-3) or Bader (31-7), the one Bellator fighter to carry championships in two weight courses concurrently.
“There’s no other better heavyweights than the ones we have facing each other Saturday,” Davis mentioned. “Francis is attending that fight, he’s sitting cage side, he’s sizing up those opponents and we’ll see if one of those two emerge strong enough, is a clear-cut winner enough to interest Francis. But I wouldn’t bet against it.”
Tyson was Ngannou’s idol as he grew up in Cameroon and the 2 educated collectively forward of the Fury battle.
“He’s just a force to be reckoned with,” Tyson mentioned. “He’s just a natural. He’s just a phenomenon. Maybe we use that word too often these days. Maybe it’s a juggernaut. He’s just very special.”
Tyson as soon as hosted “ Mike Tyson’s New Fight Game: The PFL,” for the corporate and can current three winners with the Champion of Champions belt that features a detachable ring.
“I thought it was a no-brainer,” Tyson mentioned. “It was just exciting, it was new and I wanted to be a part of it somewhere.”
The someplace simply occurs to be Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s affect within the international sports activities scene included buying a stake in PFL final 12 months, one other instance of the oil-wealthy kingdom utilizing sporting occasions to extend its affect. The buy was comparatively modest — $100 million in line with the Financial Times — however even in a minority position, Saudi-backed SRJ Sports Investments ensured blended-martial arts occasions will happen in that nation.
Saudi Arabia’s rising affect on professional golf — and sports activities on the whole — has mushroomed in recent times and raised issues concerning the supposed menace of “ sportswashing,” an effort to rebrand a nation’s troubling public picture.
“Zero concerns, all positive,” Davis mentioned. “They’ve been fantastic hosts to our athletes. All you have to do is take a short glance at social media and our athletes are treated better here than anywhere in the world. We’re trying to be the global company in MMA out there and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have been the best partners.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
