Anatoly Malykhin Calls For Francis Ngannou Fight, Didn’t See Anything Special In His Return

Francis Ngannou has everyone gunning for him, again.

ONE Championship vs. PFL?

ONE Championship Heavyweight MMA Champion Anatoly Malykhin defends his gold against Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane tonight at ONE 169 live on Prime Video at 8PM ET. But, Anatoly has his eyes on a PFL Champion, too. Francis Ngannou is coming off of his PFL debut win in October where he defeated Renan Ferreira in the very first round to become PFL Heavyweight Champion.

Recently, Anatoly Malykhin sat down with MMA Fighting and said that he’s still targeting a fight with Francis and he saw nothing special in Francis’ MMA return.

Of course I watched the fight and actually I didn’t see anything special, nothing too impressive in that fight. He did not surprise me with anything. So I do think that 2025 could be the year for us to face each other. I’m ready. I’m ready to face him. He made a statement that he was the [best] fighter on the planet. I don’t think so. He cannot and he shouldn’t be saying that until he faces me.

ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong has said in the past that he would not be opposed to a bout between the ONE and PFL Heavyweights, but any serious talk of a cross-promotion battle remains to be seen.

ONE 169 is tonight at 8PM ET on Prime Video. You can see the card here.

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