{"id":946367,"date":"2026-10-30T12:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T12:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946367\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T12:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T12:34:13","slug":"fedor-emelianenko-wants-francis-ngannou-boxing-match-denies-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946367\/","title":{"rendered":"Fedor Emelianenko wants Francis Ngannou boxing match, denies talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fedor
\nEmelianenko<\/a> is interested in boxing Francis
\nNgannou<\/a>, but says no negotiations are underway.<\/p>\n

Emelianenko described the matchup as a dream fight, explaining that
\ninjuries prevent him from considering an MMA return. The Russian
\nveteran remains open to facing the former
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> heavyweight champion in the
\nboxing ring.<\/p>\n

Fedor Emelianenko says injuries rule out an MMA return but
\nleaves the door open to boxing Francis Ngannou
\n
\nEmelianenko (40-7, 1 NC) is widely regarded as one of MMA\u2019s
\ngreatest heavyweights. A dominant champion in
\nPride<\/a> during the 2000s, \u201cThe Last Emperor\u201d retired after his
\nfinal Bellator<\/a>
\nappearance in 2023. The 50-year-old said his interest in facing
\nNgannou is strictly hypothetical.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re talking about being a downright dream, I\u2019d be interested
\nin fighting Francis Ngannou under boxing rules,\u201d Emelianenko told
\nUshatayka. \u201cI couldn\u2019t manage MMA now because I have too many
\ninjuries, but I\u2019d have a go at him in boxing. That\u2019s just me
\nthinking out loud. I never said we were in negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ngannou (19-3) left the UFC in 2023 after contract negotiations
\nbroke down. He subsequently signed with the
\nProfessional Fighters League<\/a>, making his only appearance for
\nthe promotion in 2024. Before that bout, the Cameroonian lost
\nboxing matches to Tyson Fury<\/a>
\nand Anthony
\nJoshua<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ngannou most recently competed at
\nMost Valuable Promotions<\/a>\u2019 inaugural MMA event in May, knocking
\nout Philipe
\nLins<\/a> in the first round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fedor Emelianenko is interested in boxing Francis Ngannou, but says no negotiations are underway. Emelianenko described the matchup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[4225,64,63,802,44,85],"class_list":["post-946367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946367","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=946367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}