- ESPN
Aug 7, 2024, 02:00 PM ET
Finally, Francis Ngannou and Cris Cyborg will procedure their PFL debuts.
On Oct. 19, two of the applicable opponents in MMA historical past can private their first suits in the promotion. Ngannou, a old UFC heavyweight champion, will face 2023 PFL heavyweight champion Renan Ferreira in the main match. Ferreira is currently ESPN’s No. 6-ranked heavyweight.
Cyborg, the latest Bellator featherweight champion and old UFC, Invicta and Strikeforce featherweight champion, will rob on old two-division (gentle-weight and featherweight) PFL champion Larissa Pacheco.
Each and every fights will determine who claims the newly created PFL Monumental Fights Championship belts.
Andreas Hale, Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim offer their ideas on the upcoming debuts of Ngannou and Cyborg. Plus, betting knowledgeable Ian Parker explains his early leanings on the two fights.
After 30 months far off from MMA, can Ngannou calm be elite?
Okamoto: Fully, and nobody in the arena can tell otherwise. Accurate to procedure determined that, we’re talking in regards to the same Francis Ngannou who efficiently immigrated from Cameroon to France, did no longer begin wrestle sports actions unless his 20s, gained a UFC championship against the ideal heavyweight of all time in Stipe Miocic, efficiently defended the UFC belt on one leg when he concealed a knee injury, and then boxed (and in the eyes of many, beat) the applicable heavyweight boxer of his period in Tyson Fury in his first-ever expert match.
I’d now no longer tell there is noteworthy of anything Ngannou can now no longer fabricate now. The odds are against him now resulting from his age, his ruin day, and the tragic private loss he suffered this twelve months. But again, at this point, who needs to step out and doubt this man? I fabricate now no longer.
How fabricate Ngannou and Ferreira match up?
Hale: There are such a wide amount of questions surrounding Ngannou heading into this battle. He’s coming off of a brutal knockout to Anthony Joshua and hasn’t competed in MMA in over two years. He’ll be 38 years veteran by the point he steps into the SmartCage with Ferreira, and no-one knows where his desire to compete sits between his venture into boxing and the demise of his son. All of these factors are compounded by the individual he faces in Ferreira.
The Brazilian holds a enormous height and attain advantage at 6-foot-8 and 85 inches in attain (Ngannou is 6-4 with an 83-inch attain). Ferreira has huge knockout energy (11 KOs in 13 wins). He can even be three years youthful than Ngannou. On the different hand, there are factual as many questions about Ferreira, who has been knocked out forward of. It be a compelling battle of giants that will likely be a slugfest or a stinker. (Ngannou vs. Derrick Lewis, any individual?) The diversified factors heading into this bout procedure it primarily the most anticipated battle in the historical past of the PFL.
How does Cyborg-Pacheco match up?
Wagenheim: They match up precisely the formula Cyborg would determine on them to. Pacheco is a forward-moving energy striker, harmful however a tailored goal for the sledgehammer that is Cyborg. Does the 39-twelve months-veteran and largely inactive version of Cyborg calm private the oomph to vanquish what the youthful (29), fresher Pacheco will bring at her?
Cyborg has had factual one MMA battle in over two years. It modified into once a first-round knockout, on the different hand it came closing October against the ghost of Cat Zingano. Pacheco has been far busier in the previous couple of years, though she, too, has been lazy in the nine months since the PFL supplied out Bellator and obtained its fighter roster, most notably Cyborg.
In November, minutes after Pacheco had gained her 2nd straight PFL season championship, she modified into once asked behind the curtain by an MMA Junkie reporter a pair of superfight against Cyborg, the Bellator champ. A smile unfold at some point of Pacheco’s face and her eyes lit up. “I’m able to repeat you it be gonna be a battle,” she talked about via a Portuguese interpreter. “She’s now no longer going to renounce. I’m now no longer going to renounce. We’re two Brazilians. Prepare. I fabricate now no longer know the diagram it be going to return out, on the different hand it be going to be a extraordinarily, very complicated battle.” I fragment Pacheco’s overview — and her excitement.
What does this mean for PFL?
Okamoto: We’re going to see what this means for the PFL. The PFL has been fine running in the UFC’s shadow for a whereas now — and in many ways, it calm is — however that is now no longer precisely the goal with out a kill in sight. When the PFL signed Ngannou in 2023, it promoted the signing as an industry changer.