Wilder was being interviewed cage-side at last night’s Professional Fighters League (PFL) event, where he expressed a willingness to fight former UFC Heavyweight King Francis Ngannou inside the cage in a bout under the MMA ruleset.
‘The Bronze Bomber’ was asked what his future plans were regarding his involvement in combat sports. The former WBC Heavyweight Champion hasn’t fought since a first-round knockout victory over Robert Helenius in October. Wilder has been quiet on social media for over a year, leading some to question whether he has a long-term future in boxing.
”We’ve got a lot of great things coming up. It’s been a bit of a dilemma of what path to take. This business [the fight business], I always say, is one of the most difficult businesses around because it’s unstructured,” said Wilder. With a smile on his face, he said that he is narrowing his options down, and the fans can expect to see him back in either August or September.
Wilder was then asked more directly about whether or not he had any plans to crossover into Mixed Martial Arts. His response would have come as a surprise to a lot of people watching from home:
”You know, I’ve thought about this many times, even with [Francis] Ngannou. You always see the MMA guys crossing over [to boxing], but you never see the fighters, the boxers, crossing over. So I want to make it more interesting for the fans. I said, ‘Why don’t you come to my backyard [the boxing ring], and after we handle business, I’ll come to yours and crossover [into MMA]. I really meant it. Things are still up in the air [with regard to negotiation]. People would be very impressed with my abilities.”
When asked by Randy Couture if he had ever mixed it up with MMA guys in the gym, Wilder confirmed that he indeed had, and the feedback he received was positive due to colleagues not expecting him to be so strong. Recalling a story from the gym, Wilder said he picked up an unnamed 230-240 pound sparring partner and slammed him to the canvas.
‘The Bronze Bomber’ seemed confident about his chances in the PFL smart cage, but whether his comments were a tactic to drum up some publicity ahead of a boxing return is yet to be seen. Taking his comments at face value, he seemed up for the challenge and spoke rather animatedly. A fight against Ngannou in MMA would be a huge coup for the PFL and would certainly draw in big pay-per-view numbers.
On last night’s PFL card, there was a massive shock on the cards as Brendan Loughnane was stopped for the first time in his career with a TKO loss to Jesus Pinedo.
Pinedo needed to win the fight by stoppage in the first four minutes of round one to make the playoffs, and he managed to get the job done in around ninety seconds. As the two men clinched in the center of the cage, Pinedo launched a knee to the head of Loughnane, with his foot then connecting the midriff of his opponent during the same move in what looked like a double leg strike. As Loughnane hit the canvas, Jesus Pinedo rained down blows before the referee, Keith Peterson, stopped the action. At the time of the stoppage, Pinedo was a massive +530 underdog, according to the live odds provided during the broadcast.
Other results from the main card included submission victories for Movlid Khaybulaev and Bubba Jenkins, defeating Tyler Diamond and Jo Sungbin, respectively.
Marthin Hamlet defeated Sam Kei via a unanimous decision, with all three judges scoring the bout 29-28.
In the main card opener, Josh Silveira defeated Delan Monte via TKO after the fight was stopped due to a nasty knee injury sustained by Monte.
Discussion about this post