Philipe Lins wants to make the most of his opportunity and shock the MMA world Saturday, when he battles former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou on MVP\u2019s first-ever MMA event live on Netflix in Inglewood, Calif.<\/p>\n
Lins won the 2018 heavyweight season in PFL and left the UFC on a four-fight winning streak in 2024, and now he gets the chance to steal the show in front of thousands of fans at the Intuit Dome. The Brazilian fighter is the least popular of the top six fighters involved in the card, and the B-side of the Ngannou clash, and that\u2019s one of the things that motivates him the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re already making history even before this fight happens, with this first event on Netflix,\u201d Lins told MMA Fighting. \u201cA win over Francis Ngannou, with everything he\u2019s done in MMA and the legacy he\u2019s built, would permanently put my name in MMA history as the guy who beat Francis Ngannou. It would be like a work of art, you know? Something that would take my career to a very high level. I\u2019m a very simple guy, though. I don\u2019t let myself get carried away thinking about what could happen. Even if this victory happens, I\u2019ll still be the same person as always. Calm, grounded, enjoying life. But without a doubt, beating Francis Ngannou would be something extraordinary, and I still can\u2019t even put it into words.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ngannou vs. Lins is scheduled for five rounds, and the American Top Team product vows to be ready to go all 25 minutes even though more than two-thirds of his MMA wins have come by way of finish, with nine knockouts and four submissions against five decisions. Yet, \u201cMonstro\u201d feels that dragging Ngannou to deep waters could give him the edge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be prepared to fight all five rounds. I think the longer the fight goes, the better it is for me,\u201d Lins said. \u201cI look at his fight against Stipe Miocic as an example. I\u2019m going to frustrate him, look for openings. It\u2019s very difficult to find holes in his game. I\u2019ll be ready to go five rounds with him, fight smart, use all my skills, and apply them the right way in this fight. But I\u2019m also a guy who looks for the knockout and submissions. I\u2019ll wait for the right moment. This is high level, so you have to know how to use your abilities and wait for the right opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lins said the two years away from the cages gave him a window to heal injuries, fix holes in his game, and focus on his personal life, and he feels rejuvenated as he approaches his 41st birthday in August. Lins calls this match \u201cthe biggest opportunity of my career so far,\u201d competing before \u201clegendary athletes\u201d Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano. A win would be career-changing as he will be a free agent come next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cA win over Francis Ngannou would be big,\u201d Lins said. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy who needs no introduction, who has fought huge names, was UFC champion, knocked out most of the guys he faced, and all the history he has. He crossed over from MMA and fought two boxing champions, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. He came back to MMA and is coming off two wins. Francis Ngannou will be the biggest challenge of my career, the most important fight of my career. I know that. It\u2019s a huge challenge ahead of me. But I\u2019m an experienced fighter, and I know how to win fights. A win over Francis Ngannou would put my name at the very highest level of MMA, in MMA history forever. It would be something extraordinary. I believe in my potential, in my skills, and I\u2019m chasing this victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lins said MVP is paying him more than he was making in the UFC between 2020 and 2024, but is still below the figures received for his PFL season finale knockout victory over Josh Copeland back in 2018. In fact, Lins admits it took time for him to get over the fact that the UFC wasn\u2019t interested in re-signing him despite being on a winning streak over Ion Cutelaba, Maxim Grishin, Ovince Saint Preux, and Marcin Prachnio.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat last fight in 2024, against Cutelaba, was the final fight on my contract, and they decided not to renew it,\u201d Lins said. \u201cI wanted to stay with the promotion, but it was an internal decision on their side not to renew my deal. What I can say about the UFC is that I\u2019ll always be very grateful for everything they did for me and for all the opportunities they gave me inside the organization. They took my career to another level, and I\u2019ll always appreciate everything the UFC did for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I spoke to my manager, and he told me the UFC wasn\u2019t going to renew my contract, it was really difficult,\u201d he continued. \u201cAt the same time, I also felt a little responsible for it. There were a couple of fights that didn\u2019t happen, like two fights where I ended up pulling out during fight week because I wasn\u2019t feeling well. The UFC is such a huge organization, and there\u2019s a lot involved. Maybe my age also played a role in their decision not to renew my contract. It was very hard at first. In the beginning, it was difficult to process, but as the days passed, I calmed down and got my head straight. And there are other organizations out there, right? Netflix is doing its first event now and giving opportunities to great athletes. I think they came to stay and compete with these major organizations. But at first, it was really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philipe Lins wants to make the most of his opportunity and shock the MMA world Saturday, when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85],"class_list":["post-671201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671201","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=671201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}