Former UFC fighter Matt Brown believes that Francis Ngannou's knockout defeat by Anthony Joshua in the boxing ring influenced UFC President Dana White's unwillingness to bring the former heavyweight champion back to the organization.
“Legacy wise, he’s already forgotten in terms of the heavyweight division in MMA. Had he won those boxing matches, that would have obviously helped his legacy a sh*t ton. For instance, after he fought Tyson Fury the first time, and a lot of us believe that he won, it was pretty close, debatable but I would argue he probably won. I don’t think anybody was arguing that it was a bad move at that point,” Brown said.
It was after he lost and now the UFC is like whatever bro, do your thing. Now everybody is asking if it was a mistake. But he made more money in those two matches that he would have made fighting in the UFC for the next 10 years. Was it a mistake on that part? No, but his legacy is going to suffer.
Ngannou's last fight was against Renan Ferreira in October 2024 at the WPFL tournament. Francis won this fight by knockout in the first round.
Ngannou made his MMA debut against Rachid Benzina in November 2013 at the 100% Fight tournament. This fight, which was stopped in the first round, ended in Francis' favor with a submission. He has 18 wins and three losses in mixed martial arts.
