As reported by FanSided, Heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou is keen to maintain his fight date of September 9th at UFC 215, with the top ten fighter currently without an opponent following a possible violation of the USADA testing programme by Junior Dos Santos.
Both men and the media were notified of the flagging within the last few days, with Dos Santos’ team insisting that there was no wrongdoing by the former Heavyweight champion. Ngannou, who has been on an absolute tear since joining the UFC, was obviously quite upset by losing his big fight and responded by calling out one of the biggest names in the division.
That name, of course, is Alistair Overeem who is coming off of an impressive decision victory over Fabricio Werdum back at UFC 213 in July. Whilst Overeem may want to sit on the fence for a while following such a tasking fight he has brought up Francis’ name as a potential opponent in the past, and this could solidify yet another title shot for the Dutchman.
Francis, on the other hand, is considered to be one of the hottest prospects in all of mixed martial arts right now with his devastating power and intimidating presence making him a huge challenge for anyone who steps across the octagon from him. Still, that hasn’t stopped people from calling the guy out but this time it’s the 30-year-old’s turn to dictate the terms and conditions.
It seems only fair for him to decide who his opponent in Canada will be because after all, he’s been preparing to face JDS and now the script has been completely flipped upside down. In terms of the match-up being a realistic possibility for 215 it seems doubtful, but they could end up pushing it back to 216 or 217 in a similar fashion to the Robbie Lawler vs Donald Cerrone encounter.
Overeem likes to do things on his own terms these days and despite his mentality being much better than it has been in the past, we anticipate a more outspoken Alistair if this supposed ‘dream match’ of sorts does indeed go down.
UFC 215 will still be headlined by two major title fights at the beginning of next month, with Demetrious Johnson and Amanda Nunes both aiming to stay atop their respective divisions against some tough competitors in the form of Ray Borg and Valentina Shevchenko.
Will Francis get his wish? Only time will tell.
