Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Ferreira - Early Head-to-Toe Breakdown

If Francis Ngannou decides to return to MMA, it will seemingly be for a fight with towering Brazilian knockout artist Renan Ferreira in the PFL SmartCage.

Ngannou, the lineal MMA heavyweight champion and former UFC heavyweight champion, is focused on boxing at the moment. Last year, he shocked the world by going the distance with Tyson Fury, and on March. 8, he will attempt to set up more huge opportunities in the ring when he takes on Anthony Joshua.

However, it was recently revealed by the PFL that Ngannou still plans to return to the sport that made him famous and that his opponent would be the winner of Ferreira and Ryan Bader's fight, which headlined last weekend's PFL vs. Bellator super card in Saudi Arabia.

Ferreira won that fight by knockout in less than a minute, and while Ngannou didn't stick around to face off the Brazilian in the cage, his coach has suggested he is interested in the challenge.

A few things need to happen for a potential Ngannou vs. Ferreira fight to happen. Most notably, Ngannou needs to be willing to take a break from boxing for a fight that is less lucrative but arguably more dangerous than any he'll encounter in the ring. Yet if it happens, it will be the biggest fight the PFL has ever promoted, and one that could very easily see the lineal MMA heavyweight title change hands.

Keep scrolling to see how Ngannou and Ferreira match up on paper.

Francis Ngannou is considered the hardest puncher in MMA right now, and now that he's competing as a boxer, it would be fair to call him the hardest puncher in all of combat sports.

The proof is in the pudding.

He has secured 11 of his 17 victories by way of knockout, and some of those are among the most violent finishes we've ever seen in a cage, such as his devastating stoppage of Alistair Overeem in 2017 and his title-winning defeat of Stipe Miocic in 2021.

In the past, Ngannou was a bit unrefined in his approach to striking, as he occasionally abandoned defense to land his own knockout blow, as he did against Jairzinho Rozenstruik in 2020. However, he has become much more measured in recent years, and there was no better evidence of this than his boxing match with Fury, which saw him work behind his jab and actually drop the boxing legend for one of the most dramatic sporting moments of 2023.

In Renan Ferreira, he might finally encounter an equal in terms of pure power—or at least close to it.

The Brazilian also has 11 knockout wins on his record, but in a smaller number of victories, at 13. His last four have been particularly impressive, as he first stopped Matheus Scheffel, Maurice Greene and Denis Goltsov to win the 2023 PFL heavyweight champion, and then the Bellator heavyweight champ Bader to set up his fight with Ngannou.

At this point, it would be naive to suggest any heavyweight has a striking advantage over Ngannou, but there is no question that Ferreira has the power and skill to shock the world with a knockout of his own.

Ngannou gets the edge, but it's close.

Edge: Ngannou

Neither Ngannou nor Ferreira are known for their submissions. We rarely see this side of their games, as they're generally too busy knocking people's heads off. However, there is some evidence to work with as we look to determine who has the upper hand in this department.

Let's start with Ferreira. Brazilian jiu-jitsu was actually his first martial art, and it led him to train with the famed Nogueira brothers in the early days of his career. That implies some familiarity with submissions, even if he has only secured one of his 13 victories in that fashion.

In Ngannou's case, the opposite is true. He didn't grow up learning jiu-jitsu, and in fact, only started learning "the gentle art" when he began training in MMA a few years before he arrived in the UFC. However, that didn't stop him from winning three of his first five fights by submission. He also famously submitted Anthony Hamilton with a bone-bending kimura in his fourth UFC fight—a maneuver he allegedly learned in the dressing room beforehand.

Given Ferreira's longer history with jiu-jitsu, it's tempting to give him the edge in this area, however, the fact is that Ngannou has won four times as many fights by submission. That's a big difference, so we've got to give the edge to him.

Edge: Ngannou

When it comes to wrestling, Ngannou should have a clear upper hand against Ferreira.

While the Cameroonian's punches are his best weapons, his 2022 title defense against Ciryl Gane proved that he has some other tricks up his sleeve. In that fight, which was the last of his UFC career, he completed four takedowns to rack up 8:29 of control time and secure a unanimous decision win—allegedly with a serious knee injury.

Ferreira, meanwhile, attempted three takedowns during the 2023 PFL season, but completed none of them, according to stats on the PFL website.

Again, both men are strikers by trade, so there is quite a bit of mystery surrounding their ground games, but based on what we've seen, Ngannou is clearly the more effective with his takedowns and top control.

Edge: Ngannou

Ngannou's X-Factor: Motivation

At this point, if Francis Ngannou returns to MMA, it will be purely about competition. He already reached the top of the sport when he won and defended the UFC heavyweight title, and he made millions for his fight with Tyson Fury, which he will do again when he fights Joshua next week. He doesn't have anything else to accomplish, and is certainly very comfortable financially, which begs the question: why fight Ferreira at all? Ngannou doesn't seem like the type to take a fight lightly, but if his training is anything less than 100 percent for this fight, he risks disaster in what is surely the final chapter of his combat sports career.

Ferreira's X-Factor: Size and Youth

At 34, Ferreira is no spring chicken. However, he is three years Ngannou's junior, which is a significant gap in a sport as physically taxing as MMA. At 6'8", he is also three or four inches taller than Ngannou. Ngannou didn't seem to bothered by the height disadvantage he dealt with against Tyson Fury, but this is something Ferreira could use to his advantage all the same.

Pretty much every heavyweight is capable of turning their opponent's lights out in an instant. When we're talking about devastating punchers like Ngannou and Ferreira, this is all the more true, which makes it difficult to predict how a fight between them will go.

However, Ngannou still seems to be the hardest puncher in all of MMA, and he has an excellent chin to depend on. He's never been knocked out in a fight, which is not true for Ferreira, who suffered a knockout loss to Ante Delija—a vastly inferior fighter to Ngannou—in the summer of 2022. As we've covered, Ngannou also seems to have a nice wrestling advantage to fall back on if things get dicey on the feet.

If this fight happens, the smartest choice for Ngannou would seemingly to replicate his strategy against Gane, and take Ferreira down as frequently as possible. If he can do that, a ground stoppage or decision win will both be well within reach.

However, this is Ngannou we're talking about. The most likely outcome is that he simply does what he always does, and knocks his opponent senseless in short order.

Prediction: Francis Ngannou by first-round knockout