Deontay Wilder, the former heavyweight champion, suffered a devastating loss to Joseph Parker last month, but Francis Ngannou is still eager to face him in the future.
After facing Tyson Fury(34-0-1, 24KOs) for the first time in his professional boxing debut and going close to defeating the WBC champion in their non-title fight in October, Ngannou has made a spectacular comeback to the sport.
Ngannou(17-3-0, 12KOs) an MMA fighter from Cameroon will face Anthony Joshua(27-3, 24KOs), the former two-time unified champion who has won three fights since his two losses against Oleksandr Usyk(21-0, 14KOs) on March 8, in Riyadh.
“I’m here for the boxing career and there I have a lot of challenges, a lot of names. For example, the top three guys that I’ve always had are Fury, Joshua and Wilder,” said Ngannou in media reports.
“Wilder better get it together because I’m not done, I want that name on my record,” he added.
Wilder’s future at the top of the sport seems questionable after two stoppage losses to Fury and that poor effort against Parker last time out and Ngannou is wary about writing him off because of this.
“Two months ago, we were talking about fighting Deontay Wilder in the PFL [Professional Fighters League]. The landscape can change quick. Everything is possible,” said Ngannou.
Ngannou established his name in mixed martial arts (MMA) prior to boxing. He defeated former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic in 2021 to win the championship, which he then successfully defended against Ciryl Gane in 2022.
Although he hasn’t yet competed for the PFL, he signed with the organization last year after his contentious split with the UFC.
Now that he’s a 37-year-old MMA champion, Ngannou’s attention is shifting more and more toward high-profile matches in non-MMA sports.
“It’s a boxing career, it’s not an MMA career now. We are here talking about my boxing career. In my MMA career, I got to the point that is everyone’s dream. I was MMA champion. There are some great fights to do in MMA but there’s not a new challenge, something exciting in MMA,” said Ngannou.
