TMZ Sports<\/a>. \u201cBasically, how can they go from Gervonta Davis to Francis Ngannou? Gervonta Davis is a fantastic boxer and is a one-shot knockout artist, but come on. We\u2019re way different. It makes no sense. Gervonta Davis, you come, you say, \u2018OK, the size difference can level up.\u2019 [But] at this point, for me, it makes no sense.<\/p>\n\u201cYes, they reached out the other day and told me how they need a replacement for Gervonta, and after I listened, I wasn\u2019t getting it, and I said, \u2018OK, what can I do for you?\u2019 They said, \u2018We\u2019re looking for a replacement,\u2019 but I still didn\u2019t get it. \u2018OK, what exactly can I do for you?\u2019 He was like, \u2018We are thinking about you to fight Jake to replace Gervonta.\u2019 \u2018Which Jake?\u2019 I was so confused. I wasn\u2019t expecting that at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018No, bro. Come on. Don\u2019t disrespect me like that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
And apparently it\u2019s a matter of principle. Though a fight against Paul would likely be enormously lucrative for Ngannou with possibly millions of viewers on Netflix, \u201cThe Predator\u201d says he doesn\u2019t care about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey even came out after and said, \u2018What if the numbers are good?\u2019\u201d Ngannou said. \u201cHe sent some numbers, and I\u2019m like, \u2018It\u2019s not about the number.\u2019 If it was about the number, I would tell you. I\u2019m just not interested.\u2019 He makes no sense for me. He\u2019s not what I\u2019m looking at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul has made a career out of boxing former MMA fighters, but Ngannou would be a huge step up in competition.<\/p>\n
Not only does Ngannou have his own boxing experience, having fought Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua in the squared circle, but he would also be the first Paul opponent who was bigger than the former Disney star. But while this would be a big step for Paul, Ngannou views the offer as a step back for himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fight makes no sense,\u201d Ngannou said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I think. That\u2019s my position. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s disrespectful. What flattering? Come on. I don\u2019t know, I don\u2019t see it that way. Maybe I\u2019m wrong, but that\u2019s not the way that I see it. But I have no interest in that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ngannou has not competed since October 2024, when he finished Renan Ferreira in his PFL debut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Francis Ngannou is not interested in stepping in against Jake Paul. Next week, Jake Paul is scheduled to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,802,1920,786,1347,785,85],"class_list":["post-261679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}