UFC champion Israel Adesanya weighs in on Francis Ngannou signing with PFL: “It creates a big ripple in the game”

UFC champion Israel Adesanya has praised Francis Ngannou following the announcement that he has signed a deal with PFL.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Francis Ngannou had signed with PFL. In addition to the signing itself, plenty of details were also released, which included guaranteed seven-figure purses for his opponents, a big role in PFL Africa, the ability to compete in boxing and more. Whichever way you look at it, Francis Ngannou will be making a lot of money.

As you can imagine, some have come out and criticized ‘The Predator’ for supposedly ducking Jon Jones. Based on this evidence, though, it seems as if he was right to take a chance on himself.

His long-time friend Israel Adesanya had the following to say on the matter during a recent interview.

“It’s good news. It’s good for the game, I think,” Adesanya said. “What I really liked is how his opponent is guaranteed a million. That’s cool. What he’s doing with PFL Africa … you can see the potential already. PFL Africa, and Francis has a seat at the board, or at the table.

“This thing about his opponent is guaranteed a million, how many fighters are gonna be like, ‘Right, I need to get to the PFL. I wanna fight Francis,’ because now Francis is the guy, the money fight. That’s another twist on it that I like.”

Adesanya praises Ngannou

“I think the UFC, they’re not dumb,” Adesanya said. “They’ll take notice. They know how to adapt, and when something like this happens in another field, it creates a big ripple in the game, and a big enough ripple can force the UFC to change the way – even like a small change.”

“… This is a big f*cking move,” Adesanya continued. “It causes a ripple that forces change.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie

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