Francis Ngannou is not only a sought after name in the world of MMA, but also in boxing.
The former UFC heavyweight champion made his professional boxing debut in October when he faced WBC world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and he exceeded expectations.
Ngannou produced a number of problems for Fury, and scored a third round knockdown against the British fighter, but Ngannou still came up short with Fury being declared the winner on two of the three judges' scorecards.
Following the loss, Ngannou has been linked with a number of boxing's top names including Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder amongst others, and in a recent interview on Brian Custer's The Last Stand podcast, Ngannou revealed that talks had taken place with three major names in the heavyweight division, starting off with veteran Derek Chisora.
“I prefer to fight only the top fighters. Why did I fight Tyson Fury? Because he is the top of the game, I wanted to get in there at the top and I want the best. I want the big fights, the big show, I want everything big. At the end of the day, it is a sport, we do what we have to do,” Ngannou said when discussing the prospect of facing of Chisora.
It is not just in the boxing ring where Ngannou is looking to face the big stars, he is also hoping his starpower can tempt boxers into crossing over to MMA and one of those that has expressed an interest is former WBC world heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
“The conversation of a mixed-rules fight with Deontay Wilder [in the PFL] is true, because even before this fight [with Tyson Fury], we have been having discussions.”
Then there is a clash with Joshua which has the potential to be a seismic event and Ngannou admitted contact had been established with the two-time world heavyweight champion's promoter.
“My team said that they received a text message from Eddie Hearn and I think that’s all.”