Francis Ngannou has been criticised by his personal boss for lacking his promotion’s debut occasion in Africa.
The PFL entered Africa for the primary time final month for a stacked struggle card in South Africa.
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It was headlined by a middleweight title bout between Johnny Eblen and Costello van Steenis, which the latter received by way of submission within the final ten seconds of the five-round bout.
Additionally on the cardboard was Briton Dakota Ditcheva, who claimed a unanimous determination win over Sumiko Inaba to cement her title because the promotion’s biggest feminine athlete.
Eblen spoke to talkSPORT.com forward of his struggle on the high of the invoice, and revealed in the course of the dialog that he hadn’t seen Ngannou all through the occasion’s struggle week.
PFL Africa is spearheaded by former UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou, who’s performing because the league’s chairman.
READ MORE ON FRANCIS NGANNOU
So it was stunning to followers and the media that the Cameroonian hadn’t been current at any of the occasion’s promotional actions.
PFL chairman Donn Davis has since mentioned Ngannou’s absence from the occasion, admitting his disappointment within the face of his promotion.
“It’s important to ask Francis [why he was not present],” Davis advised ESPN after PFL Africa.
“I’m not going to cover it – I anticipated him. That is a part of his imaginative and prescient, so that each one these fighters on the market don’t have to go away the continent like he did.
“We labored for 2 years. I’m direct and say what I believe. I’m upset.”
Ngannou’s story to MMA’s summit, which included a 14-month journey forwards and backwards throughout the Sahara Desert and time in jail, is certainly one of a form.
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PFL Africa is being pushed by the message that up-and-coming fighters will not must undergo the identical factor as Ngannou as soon as did.
‘The Predator’ hasn’t fought since his PFL debut in October 2024, when he stopped Renan Ferreira in a single spherical to develop into the promotion’s new heavyweight champion.
The struggle got here two-and-a-half-years after Ngannou left the UFC because of a contract dispute along with his former boss, Dana White.
Ngannou sought profitable alternatives on the earth of boxing after leaving the UFC.
He fought Tyson Fury in his in-ring debut in October 2023, knocking ‘The Gypsy King’ down with a left hook en path to a split-decision defeat.
5 months later, Ngannou was brutally knocked out by Anthony Joshua after two rounds earlier than defeating Ferreira, and he hasn’t fought since.
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He’s most probably to seem again contained in the squared circle earlier than his return to MMA.
Deontay Wilder has steadily cropped up as somebody who might stand toe-to-toe within the ring with Ngannou subsequent.