Francis Ngannou labels Serghei Spivac "future champion" after training sessions ahead of UFC 311

Francis Ngannou recently took to his Instagram Story with a post-training clip of him embracing Serghei Spivac ahead of the Moldovan's UFC 311 clash with Jailton Almeida.

'The Predator,' who is currently signed to the PFL, was full of praise for Spivac, even describing him as a future champion:

"Just finished training out here with 'Polar Bear.' The future champion."

A screenshot of Francis Ngannou's Instagram story

The clip of Ngannou's praise for Spivac is available on the Cameroonian's Instagram profile.

Spivac is certainly one of the top heavyweights in the UFC, currently ranked No. 7 in the weight class. He is coming off a first-round submission win over Marcin Tybura.

Ngannou's assessment of Spivac comes in spite of some notable losses. While he has been successful at heavyweight, Spivac has come up short every single time he's faced a truly elite top-three heavyweight, getting TKO'd by Ciryl Gane after two rounds and knocked out by Tom Aspinall in two minutes.

Whether he can overcome fighters at that level remains to be seen, especially given that the current UFC heavyweight champion is Jon Jones, arguably the greatest fighter of all time.

---

Francis Ngannou is a former UFC heavyweight champion himself

Some in the MMA community regard Francis Ngannou as the lineal heavyweight champion in the sport. This is due largely to the fact that 'The Predator' recently defeated Renan Ferreira for the PFL Super Fights heavyweight title and was never beaten for the UFC heavyweight championship.

Instead, Ngannou was stripped of the aforementioned title after parting ways with the UFC.

Given that he was never beaten for the belt, some still regard him as the world's best heavyweight, especially given that Jon Jones, the current champion, has only beaten fighters who Ngannou had already defeated.