Outside Source
PFL announced its split with Ngannou earlier this month. This was immediately followed by the announcement of Ngannou’s booking against Philipe Lins on May 16 on MVP’s first MMA card in collaboration with Netflix.
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Ngannou claims he still had a fight left on his PFL contract, which he wanted to exhaust. However, the PFL allegedly told Ngannou for a year that they were working on it. Ngannou also believes the major changes in the PFL leadership led to a delay in proceedings. While Ngannou used to previously discuss fight-related matters with former CEO Peter Murray, he was replaced by John Martin last year.
Slow Negotiations
“I think I had one fight left, and I was hoping to have that fight since last year,” Ngannou said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “I’ve been asking for the fight, but they keep telling me they are working on it… At the same time, a lot of things were changing in the PFL. And sometimes it was even hard to know – because I used to talk fight-related [stuff] with Peter Murray. And then things started to change, and then John [Martin] came around, and the conversation basically had to start all over again. So kind of slowed the process down.”
Ngannou (18-3) left the UFC on a bitter note in 2023 and signed up with the PFL. However, Ngannou’s highly-anticipated PFL career didn’t exactly pan out as expected. While Ngannou competed in two massive boxing matches against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, he fought only once in the PFL. “The Predator” defeated Renan Ferreira in his lone PFL bout in October 2024.
Meanwhile, the PFL leadership recently underwent massive changes. Former CEO Murray was shifted to the PFL’s international wing in July 2025 and replaced by John Martin. Murray parted ways with the promotion this past January. Founder and longtime chairman Donn Davis also left the PFL in January.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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