Francis Ngannou's opponent clause at PFL will force UFC to make changes to avoid losing fighters, says Israel Adesanya

Israel Adesanya [Left], and Francis Ngannou [Right]
Israel Adesanya [Left], and Francis Ngannou [Right]

Israel Adesanya weighed in on the clause in Francis Ngannou's PFL contract that will see his opponents earn a lucrative purse to fight him.

Adesanya uploaded a video to his YouTube channel, where he shared his thoughts on Ngannou's new deal with the PFL and what it means for other MMA promotions. He mentioned that he believes that it will now attract other fighters because of how much they could earn by fighting 'The Predator' in the SmartCage.

He said:

"His opponent is guaranteed a million [dollars]. How many fighters is gonna be like, 'Right, I need to get to the PFL. I wanna fight Francis [Ngannou]', because now Francis is the guy, he's the money fight. So that's another twist on it that I like." [17:54 - 18:02]

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'Izzy' also brought up that the PFL deal could force the UFC to make changes and adapt in order to avoid losing fighters to other promotions. He mentioned that he believes that the UFC will in fact do so and react accordingly, saying:

"I think also think the UFC, they're not dumb...Of course, they'll see that, 'Oh, if I fight Francis I'm guaranteed a million.'...Fu*k, they'll drop out. But yeah, I think the UFC they're not dumb, they'll take notice. They know how to adapt and when something like this happens in another field, creates a big ripple in the game." [18:07 - 18:32]

It will be interesting to see whether Ngannou's PFL deal will lead to more fighters wanting to join the promotion as well or if Adesanya's prediction will be correct and the UFC will adapt.

Check out the full video:

youtube-cover

Israel Adesanya predicts Jan Blachowicz vs. Alex Pereira

Israel Adesanya shared his thoughts on the recently announced light heavyweight bout between his former rivals Jan Blachowicz and Alex Pereira.

During the affromentioned video, 'Izzy' gave his prediction on what he thinks will transpire during the bout. He mentioned that he believes that the former light heavyweight champion will use a similar gameplan against 'Poatan' that he used to defeat him in 2021.

He said:

"I think Jan's gonna take him down and just beat him up there. I think Jan will stand with him for a bit but eventually just get him to the fence or try and take him down the way he took me down." [20:46 - 20:53]

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Edited by Micah Curtis
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