Francis Ngannou shares the stage with some of MMA’s biggest names on May 16 and he’s just hoping he gets a chance to enjoy the show.
Netflix’s first-ever MMA event, headlined by the returning Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano, also features former UFC star Nate Diaz taking on BKFC’s top dog Mike Perry, and Ngannou himself taking on Philipe Lins in heavyweight action. The former UFC heavyweight champion spoke to the Pound 4 Pound podcast and had a definitive answer when asked for his main event pick.
“Well,
my take is that it’s a great fight,” Ngannou said. “Even for 10 years there has been debate around it and it still gets more interest and more attraction than a fight of people that are still active, so I mean, there has always been a question of ‘If Gina… if Ronda… if, if, if…’ and now it’s happening. So I think we are just going to enjoy the show, but who am I picking? I have to give Ronda on this one.”
Rousey is the logical favorite on paper, having reigned as UFC bantamweight champion in her prime and being five years younger than Carano. Both women are coming off of lengthy layoffs, with Rousey last fighting in 2016 and Carano in 2009, so even in that department Rousey has the slight edge. Carano, along with Cris Cyborg and others, is widely credited with being at the center of the women’s MMA movement in the late 2000s with Rousey later turning that movement into a boom period when she made her UFC debut in 2013.
How either fighter performs when the cage door closes is anyone’s guess, but Ngannou likes what he’s seen from Rousey in the lead-up to the event.
“I think Ronda on this one,” Ngannou said. “Even though Gina seems to be very calm, very prepared, it looks like Ronda still has that fire. You can see at the press conference, picking it up, I’m like, ‘Hold on a minute.’ Like, step back.”
At the moment, it’s unclear whether Ngannou vs. Lins or Diaz vs. Perry has the honor of being the May 16 co-main event, but Ngannou would like to be seated somewhere where he can watch Diaz and Perry throw down, whether it’s before or after his battle against Lins.
When it comes to those two wild men though, Ngannou isn’t making a pick.
“When I get that information, I was so excited,” Ngannou said of the Diaz vs. Perry announcement. “I was just like, I hope I can watch this fight, because both of them they’re just going to go there and try to beat each other up. I don’t know, I like that matchup very much. I love that matchup.”
“I don’t know,” he added. “It’s hard, though. Those are people that you cannot predict. None of them you can count out. They’re going to stick there until the end unless something happens, I don’t see none of them quitting or giving up. It’s hard to pick that one. Listen, I’m just going to enjoy watching them, I don’t really care who wins. I think it’s going to be good to watch either way, doesn’t matter who is the winner.”
