Tom Aspinall Questions Francis Ngannou’s Status as an Elite Fighter: ‘These Aren’t the Best Guys in the World’
Tom Aspinall doesn’t seem to think Francis Ngannou should listed among the world’s best heavyweights.
On Saturday, October 19, ‘The Predator’ will make his long-awaited PFL debut as the promotion premieres its highly anticipated Super Fights pay-per-view series in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. There, Ngannou will square off with the 2023 PFL heavyweight tournament winner Renan Ferreira.
‘Problema’ earned the opportunity to face Ngannou via a 21-second knockout of Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader in February.
With the UFC offering a lackluster APEX card this weekend, all eyes will be on Ngannou’s return to mixed martial arts as he competes against ‘Problema’ for the recently unveiled Super Fights heavyweight world championship.
Tom Aspinall questions francis ngannou’s status as an elite heavyweight mixed martial artist
One fighter who will have his eyes on Saturday’s event is interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall. Speaking with Ariel Helwani on Monday, the UK star made it clear that he has nothing but respect for Ngannou and the adversity he’s overcome. However, Aspinall isn’t sure that Ngannou deserves to be in the conversation of elite heavyweight mixed martial artists.
His take is based on the fact that Ngannou is competing against fighters not quite on the UFC level.
“I have a lot of respect for Francis,” Aspinall said. “I have a lot of respect for him, and I really appreciate his story. I really appreciate what he’s done in the sport, but it’s hard to debate right now. The guy he’s fighting, he’s not elite. Do you know what I mean? 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 (two years ago), 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, his opponent. Yeah, he’s big. Yeah, he’s powerful. Yeah, he could knock you out, but he’s not an elite heavyweight. I’m not disrespecting him. The elite guys are not in the PFL. The elite guys are in the UFC. It’s difficult to say that (Ngannou) is the best heavyweight in the world when he isn’t fighting elite guys right now” (h/t BJPenn.com).
Thus far, Renan Ferreira is 13-3 in his MMA career with 11 of his victories coming by way of knockout. He is 7-1 under the PFL banner with three no-contests.
Since Ngannou’s last MMA fight against Ciryl Gane in January 2022, ‘Problema’ has competed eight times.
