Ngannou says next fight will be in boxing ring, eyes Wilder

PFL superfight heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou plans to return to boxing before he competes in MMA again.

"I will do boxing next," Ngannou told Sportsbook Review's James Bisson. "I want to. I'm not done with boxing. It's not that MMA is easy - it's the sport that I understand better and I have more experience in - but I say go for boxing."

Ngannou, a former UFC heavyweight champion, is 0-2 as a professional boxer. He lost to then-WBC heavyweight champ Tyson Fury by split decision in October 2023 and former titleholder Anthony Joshua by knockout in March 2024.

The 38-year-old Cameroonian returned to MMA after the two lucrative boxing matches, earning a dominant, first-round TKO win over Renan Ferreira in his PFL debut last October. The victory marked Ngannou's first MMA fight in nearly three years.

Ngannou's head coach, Eric Nicksick, said after the Ferreira bout that he'd prefer to see "The Predator" stay in MMA.

However, Ngannou said he now has his sights set on a boxing match against Deontay Wilder, a former WBC heavyweight champ who's reeling from back-to-back losses.

"There's an 80% chance that somebody will go to sleep," Ngannou said of how a potential Wilder fight would play out. "It will be one or the other."