"He could probably make 185" - Michael Bisping sternly warns Deontay Wilder against heavily rumored MMA fight against Francis Ngannou
According to PFL executives, there are plans of booking their marquee heavyweight fighter Francis Ngannou against former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in a mixed-rules fight.
Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping delved in on the rumors during a recent YouTube video and warned Wilder against going up against Ngannou in a mixed martial arts setting.
He also spoke about the weight class that Wilder should target instead:
“Deontay Wilder, God bless him, he’s an incredibly hard puncher. He’s a gifted athlete. He can hit hard as hell. Okay, but his legs are stick thin! Relevance of that, not the strongest lower posterior chain, okay? The legs are an important part of stopping a takedown. You need strong hips. He better be deadlifting like a motherf****r, right? Because Francis Ngannou is way heavier. Deontay Wilder coming over to mixed martial arts, he better be thinking about 205, the light heavyweight division. He looks like he could probably make 185. If Alex Pereira can, if Israel Adesanya can, then Deontay Wilder probably can.”
Michael Bisping also pointed out the wrestling threat that Ngannou poses:
“But according to Donn Davis, the founder of the PFL, that is the fight that they’re trying to make. Deontay Wilder’s been training for seven months. I respect him, that’s a big challenge. Francis Ngannou just weighed over 270 pounds against Tyson Fury. Deontay even at his heaviest was walking at 215-220, that’s too light. Yes, he’s fast, yes he can hit but Francis Ngannou can wrestle. Look at what he did against Ciryl Gane. He outwrestled the kickboxer.”
Check out his full comments in the video below:
Dan Hardy believes Dana White will prevent fighters from following in Francis Ngannou's footsteps
Francis Ngannou vacated his UFC title earlier in the year and left the promotion to pursue more freedom in his contracts and crossover fights in boxing.
After his success at proving that he can compete and go toe-to-toe with a heavyweight champion like Tyson Fury, Dan Hardy believes UFC president Dana White will prevent fighters from taking that route moving forward.
On The MMA Hour, Hardy mentioned that the Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather was a one-off. He continued:
“If you look at somebody like a Sean O’Malley or a Jon Jones, he doesn’t want to take that risk. You remember when he took Chuck Liddell over to PRIDE and ‘Rampage’ [Quinton Jackson] beat him up, that kind of burned him, I feel. He’s been very, very reluctant to risk breaking his toys in other people’s promotions. I think he’s going to do everything he can to stop people from doing it.”
Check out his comments below [2:35:15]: