Jake Paul just “boxed” Anthony Joshua on Netflix, banking tens of millions of dollars in the process despite suffering an aura-destroying knockout loss that broke his jaw in two places (watch the finish here).
It didn’t have to go down this way.
Indeed, when Gervonta Davis was pulled from his fight with Paul, Most Valuable Promotions looked far and wide for a replacement opponent, and one of the names they called was former UFC Heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou.
The fight made dollars, and it made sense. Paul was also very supportive of Ngannou during the Cameroonian’s messy divorce from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Ngannou hadn’t boxed since a 2024 loss to Anthony Joshua. So, why wouldn’t “The Predator” accept a fight against Paul?
MVP co-founder, Nakisa Bidarian, is still trying to figure that out himself.
“The whole situation with Francis was very confusing to me,” Bidarian said at the “Jake vs. Joshua” post-fight press conference. “He’s done a couple of interviews, back-and-forth, on terms of how he thought about our conversation.”
Those interviews had Francis confused as to why they’d switch from a significantly smaller fighter like Davis to someone like him or Joshua. He was looking at it through the lens of actual competition and not spectacle, which is clearly what this was.
But, Bidarian was careful not to insult Ngannou, because you never know when you might have to give him a call again.
“I think Francis is a revolutionary when it comes to fight sports,” Bidarian said. “He stood up against the UFC, showed what kind of man he is. And this process was, again, just a little bit confusing for me given who I know who he is as a human being.”
Ngannou’s last fight was an Oct. 2024 win in Professional Fighters League (PFL) over Renan Ferreira (watch highlights). That fight promotion is looking to get “The Predator” back in the cage in the coming months, with its Heavyweight champion, Vadim Nemkov, as the leading contender. Reports on Ngannou’s PFL contract have that fight being worth roughly $8 million … a far cry from the $80 million he could have made beating the brakes off Paul.
