Reigning ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar believes a fight between himself and Francis Ngannou could bring in 800 million viewers.
‘The Predator’ made waves two weeks ago after revealing that he had signed a ground-breaking contract with the Professional Fighters League. Aside from making himself a truckload of cash, Ngannou also guaranteed a fat stack of money for his future opponents and a seat at the head of the table for the PFL’s latest expansion into Africa. The former UFC heavyweight champion isn’t expected to step inside the Smart Cage until 2024, but if Arjan Bhullar gets his way, his ticket for the Francis Ngannou lottery will be the winning one.
Speaking with Chamatkar Sandhu on YouTube about a potential ONE vs. PFL co-promoted event, Bhullar suspects that the $2 million guaranteed purse for Francis Ngannou’s first opponent could be worth significantly more as part of a cross-promotion between the two global enterprises.
“And I think to be quite fair, I think that two million is if you’re in-house with the PFL. If we’re co-promoting, we’re doing this or that, there’s no ceiling to that,” Bhullar said.
Arjan Bhullar Believes a Fight Between Himself and Francis Ngannou Would Be the Most Watched Fight in MMA History
Arjan Bhullar also suggested that no other fighter in the world could bring as many eyes to the potential matchup as he.
“I think there’s significantly more, in terms of myself, there’s no other heavyweight on the planet that could bring 800 million eyeballs, [through] Star sports [broadcaster of ONE Championship in India], to the table being a champion with that. It would be the most-watched fight of all time, you wouldn’t get those eyeballs anywhere else” (h/t MMA News).
Before he begins lobbying hard for a scrap with Francis Ngannou, Arjan Bhullar will first need to deal with interim ONE heavyweight world champion Anatoly Malykhin. The two behemoths are scheduled to unify their titles on June 23 at ONE Friday Fights 22 after more than a year of delays and cancellations.
“June 23rd, I’ve got a date,” Bhullar continued. “I’ve gotta take care of that, but after that, nothing else, it’s all just talk. So no in terms of that, but if we’re just talking, we’re sitting on a podcast, then yes, definitely.”
Are you interested in seeing the reigning ONE heavyweight world champion mix it up with Francis Ngannou?