Renan Ferreira just gave an interesting response to the UFC’s interim heavyweight king Tom Aspinall. But why was it necessary? Let’s dive into it! The Brazilian juggernaut captured the 2023 PFL Heavyweight Tournament by defeating Denis Goltsov at the season finale and then returned in April to smash Ryan Bader atop the PFL vs. Bellator fight card in Riyadh. These performances marked a dominant winning streak of 4 for Ferreira. However, the Brit was not impressed.

Aspinall bluntly declared in the Ariel Helwani show that Ferreira is not up to the mark. He said, “The guy [Francis Ngannou is] fighting, he’s not elite.” ‘Honey Badger’ also gave examples of how his teammate had defeated Ferreira in combat training. He explained, “And the guys he’ll be fighting in the future aren’t elite, and it’s as simple as that. These aren’t the best guys in the world. The guy he’s fighting fought a friend of mine and a training partner of mine, Ante Delija, and Ante just destroyed him within a minute or two. Took him down, ground and pounded him, and stopped him within the first minute, and now this guy’s fighting Francis Ngannou.”

As Ferreira is getting ready for another blockbuster match at PFL, EssentiallySports’ Andrew Whitelaw had an exclusive conversation with the former UFC champion’s next opponent, and of course, this question by Aspinall came up.

Whitelaw asked the ‘Problema’ about what the interim HW champion said about him. As soon as the translator finished summarizing the question to the Brazilian, he emerged with a confident and short answer. Ferreira said, “I don’t think the same because of my work, say for myself. The work has been down, but I keep doing it. And the way I do, I don’t have to talk I just work. I get it done!” Whitelaw then asked him if he was about to ‘shock the world,’ and ‘Problema’ raised his fist while saying, “Always ready, let’s go.”

Ferreira was oozing confidence while speaking about his preparation for the fight and even spoke about his opponent Ngannou in the ES Exclusive interview. The Cameroonian MMA star has not graced the MMA circle ever since he left UFC. However, he fought Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury in scintillating boxing bouts. Unfortunately, these fights resulted in unfortunate defeats for ‘The Predator’. Nonetheless, he is returning after a long time to fight, and that too under a different MMA banner. Naturally, Ferreira was asked about his opponent’s weakness even though the Cameroonian seemed to have none. 

Renan Ferreira spoke about Francis Ngannou’s weak points in the EssentiallySports Exclusive Interview

Whitelaw proceeded with the interview and asked, “What weakness do you see in Francis?” Ferreira had an interesting answer to this. Rather than scrutinizing his opponent, he was more concentrated on upscaling his skills before the fight. The 13-3 ace answered, “I don’t f–k with him. I f–k with myself… I f–k with what I have to improve, what I have to get better, what I have to get done. And I know he is a tough fight. That’s what I know. I know he’ll be hard, fighting him. And I wanna do my best.”

It is safe to say that both the fighters are top-notch in their skills and have mammoth physiques with Francis Ngannou just 4 inches shorter standing at 6’4” while Ferreira stands at 6′8“. However, the result of the fight can only be known after the bout is over. Defeating a former UFC champ is not an easy task but Ferreira has 13 victories to be proud of.

What do you think the outcome is going to be of this fight? Do you have any predictions for the fight? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.