Renan Ferreira captured the 2023 PFL Heavyweight Championship by smashing Denis Goltsov at the season finals then returned in April 2024 to molly wop Ryan Bader atop the PFL vs. Bellator fight card in Riyadh. That performance marked four straight wins for the towering Brazilian with four straight knockouts — three within the first round.
UFC interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, is not impressed.
“The guy [Francis Ngannou is] fighting, he’s not elite,” Aspinall told The Ariel Helwani Show. “And the guys he’ll be fighting in the future aren’t elite, and it’s as simple as that. These aren’t the best guys in the world. The guy he’s fighting fought a friend of mine and a training partner of mine, Ante Delija, and Ante just destroyed him within a minute or two. Took him down, ground and pounded him and stopped him within the first minute, and now this guy’s fighting Francis Ngannou.”
Ferreira’s last official loss came against Ante Delija in PFL’s 2022 playoffs.
“So, the guy isn’t elite, his opponent,” Aspinall continued. “Yeah, he’s big. Yeah, he’s powerful. Yeah, he could knock you out, but he’s not an elite heavyweight. I’m not disrespecting him. The elite guys are not in the PFL. The elite guys are in the UFC. It’s difficult to say that (Ngannou) is the best heavyweight in the world when he isn’t fighting elite guys right now.”
Surprisingly, Ferreira was not offended by the Brit’s scathing critique.
“He can say whatever he wants, I think everybody sees what I am doing,” Ferreira told reporters during the PFL “Battle of Giants” media day (via Bloody Elbow). “All the knockouts, all the great performances that I’m delivering. So I don’t need to speak too much about it, I need to let my work show and speak for me. It didn’t offend me at all, I know about the work that I’m doing, so it didn’t offend me at all. I’m proud of that work I’m doing.”
That work includes the biggest fight of his career this weekend in Riyadh.
Ferreira (13-3) welcomes former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou to the PFL SmartCage as part of the “Battle of the Giants” pay-per-view (PPV) card, the first mixed martial arts (MMA) appearance for “The Predator” since surrendering his title back in 2023.
For the finalized PFL: “Battle of the Giants” fight card and PPV lineup click here.