Israel Adesanya has revealed his thoughts on Francis Ngannou signing with PFL, following the promotion’s announcement on Tuesday.
In the announcement, it was disclosed that the former UFC heavyweight champion will fight exclusively in their ‘PPV Super Fight Division’. However, this won’t be until mid-2024, allowing him to have a boxing match first. He will also serve as chairman of PFL Africa.
In an interview for his YouTube channel, Adesanya, a good friend of Ngannou, gave his thoughts on the lucrative deal.
UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya Reacts to Francis Ngannou News
He said: “It’s good news. It’s good for the game, I think.
“What I really liked is how his opponent is guaranteed a million [dollars]’ that’s cool. What he’s doing with PFL Africa, even already I like AKO or African KO, the one that Kamaru [Usman] has. I like some of the fights I see on there, so you can see the potential already. Francis has a seat at the board, at the table, that’s cool.
“This thing like his opponent is guaranteed a million [dollars], how many fighters are gonna be like ‘Right, I need to get to the PFL, I wanna fight Francis’ because now, Francis is the guy, he’s the money fight. That’s another twist on it that I like.”
The UFC and Dana White have been often criticised over fighter pay, but Adesanya believes this deal could spark change.
He said: “I think the UFC, they’re not dumb, they’ll take notice, they know how to adapt. And when something like this happens in another field, it creates a big ripple in the game and a big enough ripple can force the UFC to change the way [they do things], even if it’s a small change.”
Adesanya Full Interview
The full interview with Adesanya is available on his YouTube channel:
What do you make of Francis Ngannou signing with PFL?
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
