Dana White ignited a controversy the other day when he ripped the UFC rankings because Khalil Rountree remained No. 8 in the light heavyweight rankings.
The UFC CEO's argument was that Rountree had performed well and was ahead on the cards when he was knocked out by Alex Pereira in their fight at UFC 307 on Oct. 5. White argued, passionately, that Rountree should have gone up in the rankings as a result of the KO loss.
The problem is that ahead of Rountree at light heavyweight are three former champions -- No. 1 Jiri Prochazka, No. 3 Jamahal Hill and No. 4 Jan Blachowicz -- as well as No. 2 Magomed Ankalaev. Ankalaev is on a 12-fight unbeaten streak heading into his bout against Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308 on Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi.
That brings us to the heavyweight bout between Francis Ngannou and Renan Ferreira on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the main event of the PFL Super Fight League's pay-per-view card.
Ngannou isn't ranked at heavyweight by either ESPN -- which holds broadcast deals with both UFC and PFL -- or MMA Fighting. Ferreira is ranked No. 6 at heavyweight by ESPN and No. 9 by MMA Fighting. ESPN won't rank fighters who haven't been active in the previous 12 months, which is the reason why it doesn't rank Ngannou or UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones, for that matter. The same is true for MMA Fighting.
Rankings are easy to pick apart, but one of the main criteria must be to have quality wins over other elite heavyweights. Ngannou, for instance, has wins over the likes of Ciryl Gane, Stipe Miocic, Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Alistair Overeem.
Though Ngannou hasn't competed in MMA since Jan. 22, 2022, since he defeated Gane at UFC 270, he is a known commodity. Had he been active, he'd be ranked at or near the top.
Ferreira, though, is a vastly different case. His marquee win is no question his 21-second knockout of Ryan Bader at the PFL versus Bellator PPV in February. That is one of four consecutive wins for him. He'd previously defeated Matheus Scheffel, Maurice Greene and Denis Goltsov before getting to Bader.
That's not exactly a Murderer's Row. Bader is by far the biggest win on Ferreira's record.
Let's look at what he did in the PFL. His first bout in the organization was against former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum. That bout was changed from a KO win to a no-contest after an appeal to the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. It turns out Ferreira had tapped to a triangle choke that referee Keith Peterson didn't see. The bout continued and Ferreira won by knockout.
But on appeal, the win was overturned because the bout was over.
His next bout was a decision win over Carl Seumanutafa, who entered the bout with Ferreira on a three-fight losing streak with a 12-12 record. His next win was over Stuart Austin, whom Tapology currently ranks the world's 127th best heavyweight.
Courtesy PFL
Renan Ferreira celebrates a KO of Ryan Bader.
He followed that with a win over Jamelle Jones, who is 1-4 in five appearances in PFL, Bellator and Dana White's Contender Series. After that he got into a 10-month stretch in which he went 0-1 with two no-contests. He was beaten by Klidson Abreu and Rizvan Kuniev, but both of those men tested positive for banned substances so their wins were changed to no-contests. In between those fights, he was knocked out by Ante Delija.
Now, to Ferreira's credit, he's turned things around since that 2022-23 stretch. He's won four in a row and KO'd Bader, which is no easy feat. Bader, though, is a fairly small heavyweight by modern standards and is unranked by either ESPN or MMA Fighting.
Ngannou knows better than to look past anyone and so he said the right things when asked about where Ferreira ranks among his toughest challenges.
"I would definitely say Renan is at the top of the line," Ngannou said at Thursday's news conference. "But my entire life, my biggest opponent has always been me. On Saturday night, I am going to get him, so he should be ready."
Ngannou is a -250 favorite at DraftKings sportsbook, with Ferreira at +205. One must think, though, that if Ngannou weren't coming off a crushing KO loss in a boxing match on March 8 against Anthony Joshua he'd be a bigger favorite. In addition, Ngannou is dealing with an enormous personal tragedy in that his 15-month old son, Kobe, passed away in April.
Ngannou has three massive obstacles against him in this fight:
• He hasn't fought an MMA fight in 1,002 days, since defeating Gane on Jan. 22, 2022.
• He was viciously knocked out by Joshua on March 8, the only time in his career he's been knocked out.
• He's deal with the tragic passing of his son.
Who knows how he'll react after that. If Ngannou wasn't coming off the Joshua KO and hadn't lost his son, it'd be a fairly safe bet to say he'd be a larger favorite to win and that it wouldn't be that significant of a challenge for him.
He's a wild card now, however. And that's where Ferreira's chance comes in. He's 6-8 to Ngannou's 6-4 and has a two-inch reach advantage. He has the power to knock Ngannou out.
This is just another bout in a career filled with mega-fights for Ngannou. This, though, is everything for Ferreira, who knows a win on Saturday will change his life for the better.
"Both Francis and I came from humble beginnings," Ferreira said. "We had an incredible career to reach where we are right now. It is a great honor to be fighting one of the strongest men in the world."
He hasn't shown the ability to deal with a multi-dimensional fighter like Ngannou, who is arguably the hardest hitter in MMA history. Ngannou had an injured knee when he fought Gane and he did a lot of wrestling in the fight, showing he has that aspect in his game.
It's not out of the question that Ferreira wins given the obstacles that Ngannou faces. But Ferreira needs to be markedly better than he ever has before because he's facing an opponent on a level he hasn't seen yet.
Courtesy PFL
Francis Ngannou (L) and Renan Ferreira pose following the final news conference to promote their heavyweight bout on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.