The night’s main event found a hometown favorite in the unbeaten Patrick Habirora taking on a UFC and WEC great, Benson Henderson. A former champ in both promotions as well as a contender/title challenger in Bellator MMA, “Smooth” was returning from retirement for the fight, competing for the first time since March 2023, when he lost to Usman Nurmagomedov in a title fight that was part of the Bellator lightweight grand prix.

Henderson isn’t expected to become a contender at age 42, but Saturday did mark the opportunity to get back in the win column rather than retiring off a loss. For Habirora, meanwhile, it was a big step up in competition and name value.

Kickboxing Joe Schilling also returned to action on the PFL Brussels card, having last fought in MMA in 2019. He was moving to light heavyweight to take on Donegi Abena. A pair of UFC veterans served as the night’s co-main event with Taylor Lapilus facing Jake Hadley.

Where to Watch PFL Brussels

Saturday, May 23, 2026 sees the Professional Fighters League at the ING Arena in Brussels, Belgium for PFL Brussels: Habirora vs. Henderson. In the U.S. the card streams on the ESPN App. Full results can be found below.

PFL Belgium: Habirora vs. Henderson Results

Main Card

Patrick Habirora vs. Benson Henderson
Taylor Lapilus vs. Jake Hadley
Boris Atangana vs. Jared Gooden
Marcirley Alves vs. Naoki Inoue
Asaël Adjoudj vs. Keisuke Sasu

Preliminary Card

Baris Adiguzel vs. Gustavo Oliveira
Donegi Abena vs. Joe Schilling
Movsar Ibragimov vs. Shane Campbell
Khamzat Abaev vs. Luca Poclit
Adam Meskini vs. Keweny Lopes
Rustam Serbiev vs. Ashley Reece

The post PFL Brussels: Habirora vs. Henderson Full Results appeared first on Cageside Press.

Coker will be co-founder of a new MMA promotion which is expected to launch in 2027 with the former Strikeforce and Bellator boss as the CEO.

First reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

Coker confirmed the news in a social media post.

 

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“I always knew I wanted to come back when the time was right, with the right vision and a carefully curated team. That time is now. There is an incredible demand for a fresh, new global brand in MMA,” Coker wrote in a press release.

“This new league is about returning to what matters: the integrity of competition, respect for the athletes and sharing their remarkable journeys with the world. We are building something authentic, something that belongs to the athletes and to the fans who live and breathe this sport.”

Peter Levin of Griffin Gaming will also be a co-founder for the promotion according to the report.

Coker reportedly has secured $60 million from investors including skateboard legend Tony Hawk.

No name has been chosen for the promotion as of this post, but will be announced along with the leadership group, schedule and roster soon.

The post Scott Coker Returns To MMA With A Simple Message, “I’m back” appeared first on Cageside Press.

Kicking off this edition of TTP is our interview with Road to UFC flyweight, Joseph Larcinese. Larcinese chats about his run to the Eternal MMA title and his win over Dana White’s Contender Series veteran, Anthony Drilich. Plus, he chats about getting the call to fight on Road to UFC and shares his feelings about how much you can look at a bracket in a tournament. Plus, he digs into the origins of his fight name “Big Sexy” and breaks down his first round fight with Ryoga Arimoto.

Combat Countdown: Top 5 Comebacks We Wouldn’t Mind (16:15)

With Road to UFC and UFC Macau not until next week, we brought back the Combat Countdown for this week. In honor of Ronda Rousey coming out of retirement for her MVP MMA figth, we’re taking a look at comebacks. We’re counting down the top five comebacks that we wouldn’t mind seeing in the next year. We not only talk about who we’d like to see comeback, but we play fantasy matchmaker for their pretend return. Nobody ever really stays retired in this sport, so check out this list and tell us if you think we hit it out of the park or botched it badly. For this segment, all odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.

Cameron Smotherman Interview (26:36)

Closing out this Road to UFC edition of TTP is our interview with UFC bantamweight, Cameron Smotherman. After a victorious debut in the UFC, Smotherman ran into a couple of tough fights back-to-back. While he learned a lot about himself in those fights, he learned even more from a year outside of the cage. He’s taken some time away to heel, grow and add a few new wrinkles to his game. Now he looks to show the new version of “The Baby-Faced Killa” at UFC Macau when he takes on Kai Asakura.

The post TTP Ep. 532: Joseph Larcinese, Cameron Smotherman, and Top 5 Comebacks We Wouldn’t Mind appeared first on Cageside Press.

The news was first reported by the Miami Herald.

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On Tuesday, MVP released the much-anticipated viewership numbers from the event, the first-ever MMA card to be streamed on Netflix. Peak viewership hit during the main event of Rousey vs. Carano, with 17 million viewers tuning in for the fight.

The final three fights of the card averaged just over 12.4 million live viewers, with 9.3 million on average watching the event in the U.S.

That’s enough to make Rousey vs. Carano the highest-viewed MMA event in U.S. history, MVP noted in Tuesday’s press release.

In addition, gate at the Intuit Dome was in excess of $2.2 million.

The fight, held at featherweight, saw Rousey, a former UFC women’s bantamweight champion, return from a 10-year MMA retirement to take on Carano. The latter was a pioneer of women’s MMA and widely regarded as its first break-out star. She would later go on to an active career that saw her land the role of Cara Dune on The Mandalorian. While there were talks of a spin-off, controversial remarks Carano made online about Republicans being censored led to her dismissal by Disney, which in turn resulted in her suing the company.

That lawsuit was later settled out of court.

Carano, who made just over $1 million in a losing effort against Rousey that saw her submitted in just 17 seconds, had not fought since 2009.

The post MVP Touts Viewership for Rousey vs. Carano, Peaking at 17M Viewers appeared first on Cageside Press.

“Yeah I was mad, but I understand. My eye was leaking out a lot and they knew I wasn’t going to be able to get nothing done out there,” Diaz told reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum.

“I don’t think he would have done much more either, but I was blinded by blood on the right side.”

Diaz (21-14) admitted that getting back into MMA was tougher than he thought it would be. After taking mostly boxing bouts Diaz said that this one felt more like a warm up back to MMA, and that now he’d be ready to go.

“I didn’t actually feel good at all. I felt like sh*t. I just started back in it, I just got back to MMA, they were asking me how I been. I’m like, I never was gone, but then as I got closer I realized…MMA’s hard work. It’s a lot of work,” he said.

“I felt like I just started to callous everything up, and my body started to get hard. Everything started to move right together. Started to fall into rhythm and then it was time to fight.”

In the cage Diaz asked for a rematch with Perry, and it’s what he hopes happens next. He’ll be back to training in hopes that the fight materializes sooner than later.

“Right now, yeah, that’s what I want ASAP. Heal up and I’ll start running on Monday,” he said.

“I got a lot of making up to do.”

Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Nate Diaz above.

The post Nate Diaz Calls for Immediate Rematch With Mike Perry After Bloody Stoppage Loss appeared first on Cageside Press.

Not just to the streaming giant, either. Rousey vs. Carano got people talking. Social media interaction was high. Traffic was up on numerous websites. In that sense, Saturday was a good day for MMA.

Of course, there will always be naysayers. There are always ups and downs. MVP MMA’s Rousey vs. Carano card wasn’t a perfect event by any means, and there are lots of aspects about the show that can be criticized. However, if there’s any one takeaway, it’s that competition is good for the sport. With apologies to the PFL, MMA isn’t a “league sport.” It’s not stick-and-ball. It’s prize fighting, and the best comparisons are either boxing, or professional wrestling. 90s wrestling fans will tell you, that business was at its best when the “Monday Night Wars” between WWE and WCW were in full swing. It forced both companies to innovate.

Can MVP MMA, if it moves forward, do the same for the UFC, which has grown stale so far in 2026? Time will tell, but Rousey vs. Carano certainly suggested it’s possible.

We’ll get to that, and more, as we break down some of the biggest takeaways from Saturday’s card at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

No, the fix wasn’t in

Perhaps the downright dumbest discourse surrounding Rousey vs. Carano, in particular about the main event itself, came after the fight, with various talking heads on social media yelling “fix!” As if rigging the main event in favour of the fighter widely expected to win it, exactly in the fashion she did, would make any sense at all.

Gina Carano was a massive underdog heading into Saturday’s Netflix card. She had not fought in 17 years, and dropped 100 pounds in the year and a half leading up to the fight. In fact, her shape, her physical condition, was in part what led Ronda Rousey to propose the fight in the first place: she wanted to give Carano something to work towards.

You can argue that, because of how friendly the main event pair were ahead of the fight, they didn’t give it their all. And that would be an acceptable take. Yelling fix? Just say you’re desperate for engagement and attention.

Fixes, actual fixes, are incredibly rare in MMA. Mainly because the money isn’t generally worth it, and they’re incredibly difficult to pull off. In fact, discounting betting scandals involving Darrick Minner and Alexander Hernandez (which weren’t fixes, but rather injury information being leaked to the betting public), there’s really only been one verified instance of fight fixing in the UFC: Tae Hyun Bang’s fight against Leo Kuntz at UFC Fight Night 79 in South Korea, back in 2015. And, hilariously, though Bang was later convicted of accepting bribes to throw the fight, he never went through with it, getting cold feet after the UFC noticed a shift in betting lines and winning a split decision.

Aside from that, you’re left with Isaac Dulgarian’s fight against Yadier del Valle last November, in which Dulgarian tapped suspiciously quickly to a rear-naked choke while displaying zero defense. That bout remains under investigation, and could still amount to nothing. Or wind up being a similar situation to Minner, who was injured ahead of his November 2022 fight with Shayilan Nuerdanbieke and failed to disclose it (only for his coach, James Krause, to do a little insider trading with the knowledge).

Now, back to Rousey. If you’re new to MMA, maybe you missed her prime, where she finished opponents in 16 seconds, 14 seconds, and 34 seconds, all in title defenses in the UFC. Takedown, mount, arm-bar, rinse, repeat is basically what Rousey did for years. It made her the biggest star in the sport in her day. So ignore the likes of ex-pro wrestling manager and modern-day internet troll Jim Cornette (if Cornette ever recommended a restaurant, your best bet would be to flee in the opposite direction). There was no need to fix this fight; the outcome was a forgone conclusion from the start.

Whether MVP MMA is a promotion or not doesn’t matter

Speaking of bad takes, here’s another one: MVP MMA doesn’t matter, because it’s not a “promotion” in the traditional sense.

Here’s what actually doesn’t matter: whether or not MVP MMA is a promotion. In fact, it might be better if it isn’t.

Yes, MVP was playing with house money on Saturday. Netflix gave them a budget, had them work within it, and they put on the best show possible with the biggest names they could find. Now, that’s far different from investing in the sport, putting on multiple cards a month, and signing up a few hundred fighters to exclusive contracts. But isn’t that the problem? Exclusive contracts, and fighters not being able to make money elsewhere? At least if you’re a fighter anyway.

Netflix was a player in negotiations with the UFC for their latest broadcast deal, which ultimately saw Paramount+ become the exclusive home of the promotion in the U.S. and select other territories. Paramount Skydance arguably overpaid at $1.1 billion a year, but they’re trying to make their streaming service a real competitor. It’s a calculated risk, in other words.

Netflix is already number one, and the streaming giant wasn’t interested in Apex Slop. They wanted only the biggest UFC cards, the numbered events, which would have left UFC events split between broadcasters. Not impossible, the UFC, WWE, and other companies have done that repeatedly over the years. But Paramount came in with the sweetheart deal and snatched it all up.

MVP, should they move forward, likely will not be putting on multiple shows per month. Jake Paul has suggested maybe six or so a year. Which means no exclusive contracts, unless maybe only to a handful of top stars. And isn’t that a win, in a sense? Independent contractors should be free to fight where they please. Francis Ngannou spent years breaking free of the UFC’s shackles to get exactly this, the opportunity to take his services to the highest bidder. And MVP is going to be a very high bidder if they can keep putting on big events.

The disclosed payouts for Rousey vs. Carano, by the way, are worth looking at. California still releases disclosed fighter pay, and Rousey topped the payroll at $2.2 million U.S. Carano took home just north one $1 million, and Francis Ngannou earned $1.5 million. No one on the card made less than $40,000 in disclosed pay, far, far better than the UFC’s entry level fight purse of $12,000 to show, and another $12,000 to win.

In comparison, Rousey made $3 million for her final UFC fight, in 2016 in a loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207. Rousey, however, was making her much-anticipated return following the first defeat of her career. Her star power was at its peak. Nunes made a paltry $200,000 in show/win money in comparison.

Nganou? In his final UFC fight in 2022, he made just $600,000 for a win over Ciryl Gane. That was a flat fee, with no win bonus.

Tell me again why it matters if MVP MMA is a true promotion or not, if they’re offering even limited opportunities for fighters to be paid as well or better than they are in the UFC. Now, these numbers don’t reflect the PPV bonuses the UFC offers top stars (lower-tier fighters get no such luck), at least when PPV still existed, but the same is true of MVP’s numbers: they do not include any bonuses tied to viewership, promotional activities, etc.

In any case, a show that pays well, even just in one-offs here and there, is a good thing for MMA.

The post Rousey vs. Carano Aftermath: Ups, Downs, and Really Bad Takes appeared first on Cageside Press.

Arnold Allen

Arnold Allen is a very skillful fighter that has been on the cusp of a title shot on more than one occasion, but untimely losses to names like Max Holloway, Movsar Evloev and Jean Silva has prevented him from getting that shot. A near sweep on all three judges’ scorecard against a red hot Melquizael Costa is the type of win that Allen needed to get back on track and keep his spot in the division’s top 10. I think a fight against fellow Englishman Lerone Murphy is a perfect headliner for a Fight Night card in the UFC. The timing can’t work better than that; run it.

Allen’s next fight: Lerone Murphy

Doo Ho Choi

Despite a 17-month hiatus, “The Korean Superboy” came kept his winning ways going against Daniel Santos to get his first three-fight win streak since coming into the UFC. He survived the expected onslaught from “Willycat” in the first round and then proceeded to melt the Brazilian in the following frame, finishing him off with a nasty body shot that folded him in half. The now 35-year-old has earned a shot at a ranked opponent, and I think a matchup with veteran Patricio Pitbull would be a lot of fun for the fans.

Choi’s next fight: Patricio Pitbull

Juan Diaz

Malcolm Wellmaker is not an easy assignment for someone making his debut, but Diaz passed the test with flying colours. After committing a foul at the end of Round 1, Diaz kept pressuring Wellmaker, finally submitting via rear-naked choke him in the second round. You could realistically throw any name at Diaz, but I’d be curious to see how he would deal with a grappler like SuYoung You, who was on a nice win streak before suffering his first UFC loss to Elijah Smith in March.

Diaz’s next fight: SuYoung You

Modestas Bukauskas

As pedestrian a split decision as it may have been, getting back in the win column was the priority for Modestas Bukauskas, who had seen his four-fight win streak snapped by Nikita Krylov back in January. A fight with Ivan Erslan, who was also victorious on this card would make sense, considering where both fighters are currently positioned in the division.

Bukauskas’ next fight: Ivan Erslan

Bernardo Sopaj

After suffering a brutal highlight-reel loss at the hands of Vinicius Oliveira in his promotional debut, “The Lion King” has now won back-to-back fights. He dominated Timmy Cuamba on his way to a second-round finish. In the current tier he’s in, there is a ton of names that the UFC could throw at Sopaj, but I landed on Hecher Sosa who was successful in his debut earlier this year.

Sopaj’s next fight: Hecher Sosa

Khaos Williams

Khaos Williams was in bad need of a win, coming off consecutive losses that made him look particularly bad. This first-round KO was just what the doctor ordered. The best way to matchmake for Khaos is to simply put him up against someone who will be willing to stand and bang with him. Carlos Leal seemed like a good candidate, but I ultimately went with Oban Elliott, who will throw down with anyone.

Williams’ next fight: Oban Elliott

The post What’s Next: UFC Vegas 117 Winners appeared first on Cageside Press.

Only a couple of ranked fighters on the main card of this one, with the main event seeing (#7) Arnold Allen proving he still belongs amongst the elites of the featherweight division with his five round unanimous decision shut out of the ascending (#12) Melquizael Costa on Saturday. Some interesting matchups to come out of this event!

Melquizael Costa

Arnold Allen secured the unanimous decision victory in the main event of UFC Vegas 117 on Saturday. It was the grappling and transitions that sealed the defeat for Costa, as he has his six-fight win streak snapped. Melquizael is now 7-3 with the UFC.

The best next fight for Costa here is to have him take on (#8) Youssef Zalal. This matchup was featured in a previous losers article and it makes even more sense with the outcome on Saturday. Timing makes sense too, as Zalal just fought on UFC Vegas 116 on April 25th. Zalal also lost a unanimous decision snapping a lengthy (8-fight) win streak. And Zalal also lost against higher ranked competition in the form of Aljamain Sterling. Perfect reset fight for both of them, that could potentially be a fight night main or co main event. Both are coming off of their first UFC main events. Both bring the action on the feet and are relatively new faces within the upper ranks of the featherweight division. Easy one to book for matchmakers.

Costa’s next fight: (#8) Youssef Zalal

Daniel Santos

Doo Ho Choi delivered yet another thrilling fight and victory on Saturday as he engaged in a war with Daniel Santos before delivering the TKO in the second round, crumpling his opponent with body shots. This fight ended up winning fight of the night honors but snapped a four-fight win streak for Daniel Santos. Santos is now 4-2 in the UFC with his only other loss with the promotion coming in his debut back in 2022 to Julio Arce.

Daniel’s next fight should be against Morgan Charriere. That would be an excellent high-action scrap. Charriere is also coming off of a stoppage loss. The timing doesn’t exactly matchup here as Morgan’s loss came to Melquizael Costa back in December. However, it was a head kick finish while Santos was put away predominately with body shots, so maybe it could work out. Morgan is a bonus machine and in his 6-fight UFC career he already has four bonuses. (Santos has two bonuses in six fights). These guys matchup well and have similar records with the promotion as Charriere is 3-3. This would be a strong standup  matchup that has quick-twitch violence written all over it.

Santos’s next fight: Morgan Charriere

Malcolm Wellmaker

Juan Diaz pulled off the big upset on Saturday with his second round submission victory of Malcolm Wellmaker at UFC Vegas 117. The finish even earned Diaz a performance bonus. Devastating outcome for Wellmaker here, as the 2024 Contender Series alum has watched nearly all of his hype and momentum evaporate since last November. After his first round finish on the Contender Series and two subsequent first round finishes to start his career with the UFC, things were looking up (All of those finishes came via a mean check-right hook too). Last November, after losing multiple opponent,  Malcolm took on last second fill in, Ethyn Ewing, and lost his first pro fight via unanimous decision. Now the outcome on Saturday. Rough for Wellmaker, and its time to reset.

Malcolm’s next fight should be against Timmy Cuamba. Went back and forth with this one (potentially Kai Asakura if he’s badly beaten and finished by Cameron Smootherman.) But the Timmy fight is way more attractive for Malcolm here. Timing would be great too, as Timmy lost earlier on the main card and was also finished.

Kai is a decent backup as he has a name within the sport but has not performed since being signed to the UFC. Asukura is 0-2 since being signed from RIZIN in 2024. He lost his promotional debut title shot opposite of Alexandre Pantoja and lost to Tim Elliot. If Kai loses to a 2023 Contender Series product who is 1-2 with the UFC in Smotherman, well he could potentially be cut. But Wellmaker could be a decent choice in that scenario too, maybe even for Cameron, depending on how the fight ends. That bout is on May 30 so timing would be great too. Still options there for Wellmaker, but he badly needs a win.

Wellmaker’s next fight: Timmy Cuamba or Kai Asukura if he loses to Cameron Smotherman

Christian Edwards

Modestas Bukauskas edged out his short notice replacement, Christian Edwards, on the main card of UFC Vegas 117 to capture the split decision victory. Edwards was making his UFC debut on short notice after Rodolfo Bellato, the originally scheduled opponent of Modestas, withdrew. Also part of the reason that this fight was a catchweight bout at 215lbs. Not a bad showing/debut for Edwards who now falls to 8-5 in his pro MMA career.

Christian should fight Bruno Lopes for his next fight. Bruno is a 2024 Contender Series alum that has gone 1-2 with the promotion. He’s 14-3 as a pro. Lopes is currently riding a 2-fight skid, he was finished in the first round by Dustin Jacoby and was stopped in his last time out by Navajo Stirling back in late March. Bruno’s only win in the UFC came against Magomed Gadzhiyasulov in 2025. Great matchup here for both fighters to try and find their footing within the light heavyweight division.

Edwards’s next fight: Bruno Lopes

Timmy Cuamba

Benardo Sopaj delivered an exciting bout with his opponent, Timmy Cuamba, on Saturday before dropping his opponent and scrambling on the rear naked choke to log a second round submission victory. Timmy, a 2023 Contender Series veteran now falls below the .500 line in the UFC, as he’s 2-3. This loss snapped the 2-fight winning steak that Timmy had amassed in the calendar year of 2025.

Timmy should look for a fight against Ricky Turcios here. This would be a good move for Timmy as Ricky was on the Contender Series in 2017 but also was the The Ultimate Fighter Season 29 winner. Turcios has a decent name but is 2-4 with the promotion. He’s actually riding a 3-fight losing streak. The losses have been against Raul Rosas Jr., Benardo Sopaj and most recently, Alberto Montes, on March 7. So the timing wouldn’t be too bad and they have a recent common opponent. Good high action scrap to make here. But of course lots of options in that bantamweight division for Timmy.

Cuamba’s next fight: Ricky Turcios or Malcolm Wellmaker

Nikolay Veretennikov

Khaos Williams returned to form after a 2-fight skid rendering his opponent, Nikolay Veretennikov, unable to continue with a right hook to log a first round finish. The stoppage didn’t produce a bonus but Nikolay is now 2-4 with the UFC all the same. His victories include a split decision win over Francisco Prado and a first round stoppage against the now-retired, Niko Price. Plainly said, he’s yet to get a win against a current UFC caliber fighter.

Great next fight for Nikolay would be against Chidi Njokuani. Chidi is on a 2-fight losing skid. Jake Matthews choked him out in the first round of their July 2025 bout, and most recently, Chidi lost a unanimous decision to Carlos Leal back in February. Njokuani is a 2021 Contender Series alum that has a 5-5 record with the UFC.

Back up here would be a matchup against Jean-Paul Lebsnoyani. Lebsnoyani is 1-0 with the promotion since being signed off last year’s season of the Contender Series. His debut was a split decision victory over Phil Rowe who was cut from the promotion after losing. Jean-Paul was originally supposed to debut against former Bellator standout, Austin Vanderford.

Veretennikov’s next fight: Chidi Njokuani or Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani 

The post What’s Next: UFC Vegas 117 Losers appeared first on Cageside Press.

Jake Paul’s MVP, who hosted the card, had tried to secure bigger name opponents for “The Predator,” who left the UFC when his contract expired without ever losing his heavyweight championship. That included Rico Verhoeven, the GLORY kickboxing legend. Yet in the end they had to settle for Philipe Lins, the 2018 PFL heavyweight champion who like Ngannou had left the UFC on a win streak.

Despite Lins pedigree (he’d won four straight at the end of his UFC run), the Brazilian wasn’t given much of a chance against Ngannou. And he didn’t last long, knocked out towards the end of the opening round.

Ngannou (19-3) has now won both his fights in MMA since exiting the UFC. The question now becomes, what’s next? The dream fight is Jon Jones, but Jones is unlikely to free himself from the grasp of the UFC, who seemingly shattered their relationship with “Bones” by refusing to let him compete on the White House card.

“I think it’s up to Jon Jones, and I can give you something if you want,” Ngannou said following the event at the Intuit Dome when asked about Jones, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press. “I’ve been thinking about it, if I was him. I don’t know if there’s a sunset on that contract anymore. What I know, he signed his contract in 2023, so three years [prior to] now. So the sunset is two years from now. I’m just saying, hypothetically.”

A sunset clause in his contract is how Ngannou escaped the UFC. Whether Jones has one is unknown, though he was on hand working the broadcast desk during the event. In any case, the UFC wasn’t taking Saturday’s Netflix card lightly. They opted to announce Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway 2 just as Ngannou was making his walk to the cage.

“And what the f*ck do I have to do with that? So I should stop my walkout and look what is going on with— I don’t care, bro,” Ngannou said in response to one reporter who opted to bring it up. “Let’s move on. Life goes on. I’m doing my stuff here, I’m doing good. I have no problem. Everybody can do whatever he wants.”

Ngannou did respond to Robelis Despaigne, who called Ngannou out after his own knockout of former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos.

“I’m down to fight, and if he thinks he can handle [me], okay. Why not?”

“He did make a statement, he had a great finish,” Ngannou added. “So after a finish like that, it’s hard to argue, to take something out of somebody.”

The options out there for Francis Ngannou do seem limited. Jon Jones is unlikely. Someone decided to bring up Brock Lesnar’s name on Saturday, probably for a headline, given Lesnar hasn’t fought professionally in a decade and is winding down his professional wrestling career. KSW has Phil De Fries, and PFL boasts Vadim Nemkov, both of who would be interesting names.

Ngannou just seems to want the biggest fight possible.

“What do I want? Whatever is out there. I really have nothing special. I mean, if not maybe that Jon Jones fight, some big fight. But I really have nothing special, I just want to keep doing it as long as we go. If I have something, I do it. I think I have done what could have been done.”

Watch the full MVP MMA: Rousey vs. Carano post-fight press conference with Francis Ngannou above.

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