Finally, Francis Ngannou and Cris Cyborg will make their PFL debuts.
On Oct. 19, two of the best fighters in MMA history will have their first matches in the promotion. Ngannou, a former UFC heavyweight champion, will face 2023 PFL heavyweight champion Renan Ferreira in the main event. Ferreira is currently ESPN’s No. 6-ranked heavyweight.
Cyborg, the current Bellator featherweight champion and former UFC, Invicta and Strikeforce featherweight champion, will take on former two-division (lightweight and featherweight) PFL champion Larissa Pacheco.
Both fights will determine who claims the newly created PFL Super Fights Championship belts.
Andreas Hale, Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim offer their thoughts on the upcoming debuts of Ngannou and Cyborg. Plus, betting expert Ian Parker explains his early leanings on the two fights.
After 30 months away from MMA, can Ngannou still be elite?
Okamoto: Absolutely, and no one in the world can say otherwise. Just to be sure, we’re talking about the same Francis Ngannou who successfully immigrated from Cameroon to France, didn’t start combat sports until his 20s, won a UFC championship against the greatest heavyweight of all time in Stipe Miocic, successfully defended the UFC belt on one leg when he concealed a knee injury, and then boxed (and in the eyes of many, beat) the best heavyweight boxer of his generation in Tyson Fury in his first-ever professional match.
I wouldn’t say there’s much of anything Ngannou can’t do now. The odds are against him now due to his age, his time off, and the tragic personal loss he suffered this year. But again, at this point, who wants to step out and doubt this man? I don’t.
How do Ngannou and Ferreira match up?
Hale: There are so many questions surrounding Ngannou heading into this fight. He’s coming off of a brutal knockout to Anthony Joshua and hasn’t competed in MMA in over two years. He’ll be 38 years old by the time he steps into the SmartCage with Ferreira, and nobody knows where his desire to compete sits between his venture into boxing and the death of his son. All of these factors are compounded by the man he faces in Ferreira.
The Brazilian holds a significant height and reach advantage at 6-foot-8 and 85 inches in reach (Ngannou is 6-4 with an 83-inch reach). Ferreira has massive knockout power (11 KOs in 13 wins). He is also three years younger than Ngannou. However, there are just as many questions about Ferreira, who has been knocked out before. It’s a compelling battle of giants that could be a slugfest or a stinker. (Ngannou vs. Derrick Lewis, anyone?) The various factors heading into this bout make it the most anticipated fight in the history of the PFL.
How does Cyborg-Pacheco match up?
Wagenheim: They match up precisely the way Cyborg would want them to. Pacheco is a forward-moving power striker, dangerous but a tailor-made target for the sledgehammer that is Cyborg. Does the 39-year-old and largely inactive version of Cyborg still have the oomph to vanquish what the younger (29), fresher Pacheco will bring at her?
Cyborg has had just one MMA fight in over two years. It was a first-round knockout, but it came last October against the ghost of Cat Zingano. Pacheco has been far busier in the previous couple of years, although she, too, has been idle in the nine months since the PFL bought out Bellator and acquired its fighter roster, most notably Cyborg.
In November, minutes after Pacheco had won her second straight PFL season championship, she was asked backstage by an MMA Junkie reporter about a superfight against Cyborg, the Bellator champ. A smile spread across Pacheco’s face and her eyes lit up. “I can tell you it’s gonna be a war,” she said through a Portuguese interpreter. “She’s not going to give up. I’m not going to give up. We’re two Brazilians. Get ready. I don’t know how it’s going to come out, but it’s going to be a very, very tough fight.” I share Pacheco’s assessment — and her excitement.
What does this mean for PFL?
Okamoto: We’re going to see what this means for the PFL. The PFL has been fine running in the UFC’s shadow for a while now — and in some ways, it still is — but that’s not exactly the goal forever. When the PFL signed Ngannou in 2023, it promoted the signing as an industry changer. The PFL was able to sign the baddest man on the planet, the No. 1 heavyweight in the world. Will that signing now translate to viewers? Will it translate to brand awareness and fan excitement? Will Ngannou’s return, paired with the PFL debut of Cyborg, turn heads in the way PFL is expecting and hoping?
This is a different ballgame for the PFL, and it comes with different expectations. The company has been playing a long game, and its commitment to that long game is why it’s in a position to take this kind of shot with a fighter such as Ngannou on its platform. How successful this event is will tell us a lot about the PFL. Frankly, it will tell the PFL a lot about itself.
Does the Cyborg-Pacheco winner have a claim for the best women’s fighter in MMA?
Hale: Absolutely. As long as Amanda Nunes stays retired, the claim for best fighter in women’s MMA is up for grabs.
Cyborg has long stood on the periphery of this conversation and was upended in her attempt to stake her claim when Nunes knocked her out in 2018. She hasn’t lost a fight since then. Pacheco has been on a roll since losing to Kayla Harrison in 2019 and has amassed a 10-fight winning streak, including a massive upset over Harrison. With so much turmoil among the UFC’s best women fighters, there’s an opportunity for a non-UFC fighter to plant her flag as the best in the world. For Cyborg, it’s a definite if she wins. Pacheco’s situation, if she wins, is a little more complicated and may depend on how Alexa Grasso–Valentina Shevchenko 3 shakes out to determine if she is No. 1. Either way, this fight has massive implications for the conversation.
What’s your bold prediction for this card?
Wagenheim: It wouldn’t be so bold to predict that we do not see a second round in either headline bout. Between Ngannou, Ferreira, Cyborg and Pacheco, that’s a lot of offensive firepower, and all of them have finished many an opponent within the opening five minutes. So, I’m going to go bolder. I say neither the main event nor the co-main makes it out of the first minute.
On his way to earning a UFC heavyweight title shot in 2021, Ngannou obliterated three of four opponents within a minute and needed just 1:11 to smash the other. Of Ferreira’s four recent wins, three came in the first round, two in the opening minute. During Pacheco’s ongoing 10-fight winning streak, she has seven first-round knockouts — three in less than a minute, including two of her most recent three victories. The slowpoke among them is Cyborg. That might surprise longtime fans who’ve followed the Brazilian dynamo along her path of destruction. But Cyborg has not finished an opponent in the first minute since 2015 — 15 fights (and 10 KOs) ago. How odd is it that I feel like I’m going out on a limb by relying on Cyborg’s explosiveness?
One thing of which I’m sure: The cageside judges might as well beat the traffic and head home early, because their scorecards will not be necessary.
First bet on both matchups?
Parker on Cyborg vs. Pacheco: Cyborg to win inside the distance. Though Pacheco has proved to be a powerful striker with elite jiu-jitsu, Cyborg can match her in both those areas. Cyborg is more powerful and better everywhere the fight can go.
Parker on Ngannou vs. Ferreira: Ferreira to win. Where Ngannou can win this fight is with his wrestling. I expect him to go to the Ciryl Gane blueprint, as we have seen his opponent struggle when put on his back. However, Ngannou just suffered a bad knockout by Anthony Joshua and isn’t getting any younger. With Ferreira sitting at +300, I would lean on taking the underdog here, as he has the size, athleticism and power to dethrone Ngannou.