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It was recently revealed that Junior dos Santos was forced out of his scheduled Heavyweight showdown against Alexander Volkov — which was set to headline UFC Fight Night 163 on Nov. 9, 2019 in Moscow, Russia — with a bad leg infection.
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While not ideal, the promotion had a little over two weeks to find a suitable replacement. And if Dana White and Co. had checked their social media accounts, they would have seen that Francis Ngannou was willing to save the day.
UFC Moscow in 18 days?
— Francis Ngannou (@francis_ngannou) October 22, 2019
However, it didn’t take long for UFC matchmakers to find a replacement, as it opted to give the fight to Greg Hardy, who recently competed at UFC on ESPN 6. Perhaps in an attempt to redeem himself after his win over Ben Sosoli was overturned to a “No Contest” for illegally using his asthma inhaler during the fight, “The Prince of War” and his management team wasted no time in locking down the fight.
A move that obviously didn’t sit too well with “The Predator.”
I love the UFC game, it’s so funny. #UFCMoscow
— Francis Ngannou (@francis_ngannou) October 22, 2019
Francis has been very frustrated as of late, as the hard-hitting big man hasn’t been able to lock down a fight. While Walt Harris has already thrown his name in the hat, “Big Ticket” has a big fight coming up against Alistair Overeem in December.
Ngannou, meanwhile, was last seen knocking out dos Santos this past June (see it), which earned him his third straight win and what he thought would be a shot at the title. Those hopes were quickly dashed as UFC revealed plans to stage a trilogy match between Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier.
With no title fight in sight for “The Predator,” it seems all he wants to do is stay busy until his championship number is called once again. But it seems UFC simply isn’t willing to play ball with him at the moment, or they have bigger and better things lined up for him in the near future.