Francis Ngannou may not have won any professional boxing match yet, but he has won the hearts of the combat sports community. After Dana White dismissed his chances of ever making it to the boxing scene, he narrowly failed to handle one of the biggest upsets ever in boxing history to Tyson Fury. Given how capable he’s proved himself inside the squared circle, Joe Rogan believes ‘The Predator’ arrived a bit too late into the game.
Since he was 10 years old, Francis Ngannou would tell everybody in his village of Batie, Cameroon, that he always envisioned a career in boxing similar to the icon, Mike Tyson. However, his fate brought him to MMA, which Joe Rogan claimed altered the course of the Cameroonian-French star’s career.
Francis Ngannou is arguably one of the scariest combat sports athletes ever, who packs some serious steam in his punches. He tried to replicate that from MMA to boxing, and he did put on a great show against Tyson Fury. But what happened when he faced Anthony Joshua? ‘AJ’ turned Ngannou’s lights out clean.
During the recent edition of the ‘JRE Fight Companion’, Brendan Schaub told host Joe Rogan that MMA stars should take note of the hurdles in Ngannou’s boxing venture before they decide to follow suit. “The MMA guys are like, ‘Man, Francis doing it. Maybe I’ll jump into boxing’. Yes, and no. Because when he fought Anthony, that’s really how it should work. That’s how the world should work, unfortunately,” Brendan Schaub stated.
However, Joe Rogan claimed that he had seen enough to believe that Francis Ngannou could have been a real force to reckon with if he had stuck to his boxing dreams away from the UFC. “If Francis had gotten into boxing when he got into the UFC, he’d be the heavyweight champion of the world,” Joe Rogan added.
UFC is known for its strict contracts, which limit its roster in pursuing other ventures. The 56-year-old commentator believes he should have just gone straight ahead and ventured into boxing years back.
Ngannou hasn’t spoken about his next boxing match since losing to Anthony Joshua but has assured his fans that he’s still going to keep competing inside the squared circle.
Eric Nicksick, has hinted at a possible timeline for it. Currently, Francis Ngannou has resumed training at Xtreme Couture but has remained tight-lipped about his boxing future. Even Eric Nicksick isn’t particularly sure when the former UFC champion will make a comeback, but he did mention that though Ngannou is currently in recovery mode, he is in great spirits.
“He’s healing. You’re seeing the smile back on his face. You’re seeing the banter. He’s back in the gym talking trash to [Sean] Strickland and everybody around the room. That’s the most important thing,” Nicksick stated on ‘The MMA Hour’.
“I hope so [in 2024]. I hope so, because I think keeping him busy has been the best thing for him. It’s helped him a lot.”
