Francis Ngannou has been calling for a boxing match with Deontay Wilder for some time – and if the MMA star is to be believed, there will at last be a conversation between the two.
“We haven’t engaged personally, but it’s going to be soon,” Ngannou said on Monday’s episode of “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “We are setting some things up.”
Ngannou was the UFC heavyweight champion before departing the world’s leading mixed martial arts promotion in early 2023. He soon signed with the Professional Fighters League, also known as PFL. But Ngannou, a 38-year-old from Cameroon, has since had more bouts in the boxing ring than within an MMA cage.
In his pro boxing debut, Ngannou challenged then-heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in October 2023, surprisingly dropping Fury in the third round and leaving with the short end of a close split decision verdict.
Those who believed that outcome was partially the result of Fury taking Ngannou lightly had their beliefs bolstered by what happened in Ngannou’s next boxing match. In March 2024, Anthony Joshua dropped Ngannou three times in two rounds for a one-sided knockout victory.
Ngannou then dealt with the worst of personal tragedies in April 2024, when his 15-month-old son died.
Ngannou returned to MMA last October, dominating Renan Ferreira for a first-round stoppage win and capturing the PFL’s heavyweight title in the process. Ngannou’s MMA record is 18-3 with 17 wins by KO or submission.
Wilder, meanwhile, is the third member of the triumvirate that once ruled boxing’s heavyweight division before the Oleksandr Usyk Era; Fury and Joshua were the other two.
Wilder, 44-4-1 (43 KOs), had his five-year run as a heavyweight titleholder come to an end in February 2020, when he lost his rematch to Fury via seventh-round TKO. Wilder fought valiantly in a war with Fury in their third fight in October 2021, trading knockdowns and heavy blows before succumbing in the 11th round.
There was little shame in losing to the best heavyweight in the world at the time and perhaps being no worse than second-best. But the damage Wilder took in his two defeats to Fury, plus inactivity, plus the slowing that comes with age, began to show. Wilder understandably took a year to recover from Fury, returning with a one-round win over Robert Helenius in October 2022.
Wilder didn’t fight again for another 14 months, which meant he had logged all of three minutes of in-ring time in a span of more than two years. He was outboxed in a decision loss to Joseph Parker in December 2023 and then suffered a highlight-reel KO at the hands of Zhilei Zhang in June 2024.
After another yearlong layoff, Wilder came back this past June and scored a seventh-round TKO win over the 24-5 Tyrrell Anthony Herndon.
Before the Herndon bout, Wilder was asked about Ngannou in an interview with Helwani and Ade Oladipo.
“I’m definitely interested,” Wilder said at the time.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
