Francis Ngannou faces Philipe Lins on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. The heavyweight bout serves as the co-feature to Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano, live on Netflix.
At the kickoff press conference on Tuesday, Cameroonian-French former UFC champion Ngannou (18-3) revealed that he was initially expected to face Rico Verhoeven of the Netherlands. That bout did not materialize, as the former GLORY kickboxing heavyweight champion is scheduled to fight Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk the following Saturday.
Instead, Ngannou now takes on former UFC fighter and 2018 PFL champion Philipe Lins (18-5) of Brazil.
“Originally, it was a big name,” Ngannou said. “I mean no disrespect to Philipe Lins, who is an even more dangerous opponent. But originally, it was Rico [Verhoeven]. He [Nakisa Bidarian] called me and was like, ‘What do you think about fighting Rico in MMA?’ I’m like, ‘Damn, that sounds good.’ I never thought about it, but I thought it was a good opportunity.”
‘You run like a duck’
Ngannou, who was also among the names considered to potentially face Jake Paul last December when his exhibition with Gervonta Davis fell through, said, “I’m not interested in fighting Jake Paul; I’m interested in beating his a**.”
Since the fight with Ngannou didn’t go ahead – Ngannou wasn’t interested at the time – Paul went on to face former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, suffering a sixth-round knockout and a broken jaw.
Paul stated, “I’ve always been down. You [Francis Ngannou] were the option before Anthony Joshua, and you ran like a duck.”
‘I’m going to shock the world’
Lins said he was happy to take part in the first MMA card on Netflix, alongside other top names in the sport. He added that he plans to defeat Ngannou and “shock the world.”
“I took two years off and asked God to give me another opportunity,” Lins said. “He sent this big opportunity to me to fight on the first MMA event on Netflix with so many legends here like Ronda Rousey, Gina Carano, and Francis Ngannou.”
“All respect to Francis, but one victory over him is going to put my name in MMA history forever. So it’s a masterpiece, and all respect to him again for his history in the sport. But May 16, live on Netflix, I’m going to shock the world.”
In the main event, former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey (12-2) of Riverside, California, and Gina Carano (7-1) of Dallas County, Texas, make their MMA return. The contest is scheduled for five rounds at featherweight.
Other bouts on the card are expected to be confirmed shortly.