Francis Ngannou is set to face Philipe Lins, but the former UFC heavyweight wasn’t his first choice. Initially, Ngannou was offered a bout against the same man that former undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk is scheduled to fight in a boxing match on May 23 at the Pyramids of Giza. 

It’s former Glory kickboxing star, Rico Verhoeven. Despite showing interest in the MMA matchup, Francis Ngannou ultimately missed out on the opportunity. Speaking in a recent interview with journalist Ariel Helwani, ‘The Predator’ explained what led to the fight falling through.

“No disrespect to Philipe, but I was very excited about the Rico fight,” Ngannou told Helwani about fighting Verhoeven. “And then when I heard that he [had] signed to fight Usyk, I was a little disappointed, to be honest. 

Jake Paul’s MVP—which is promoting Ngannou’s fight against Lins on Netflix as part of the Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano undercard on May 16 in Inglewood, California—initially approached Rico Verhoeven to face Ngannou. Verhoeven told Chael Sonnen and Ian Parker that he had been offered significantly more money to fight Ngannou than to face Oleksandr Usyk, but ultimately chose the latter. 

He had already entered into a verbal agreement with His Excellency Turki Alalshikh to fight Usyk—a commitment he honored despite the more lucrative offer on the table. Ngannou, however, had no knowledge of the exact money offered to Verhoeven by Nakisa Bidarian.

“No, I don’t know about the amounts,” Ngannou said when asked whether he knew about the money offered to Verhoeven. “But I know that since maybe December or even before, he had a verbal agreement to fight in boxing, to fight potentially Usyk or AJ, somebody. So I knew that even when Nakisa approached me, he said, ‘This is the thing, Rico really likes this, but this is the position.’ And he was always quite clear about it.”

While approaching fighters with offers isn’t anything new, Bidarian’s offer to poach His Excellency Turki Alalshikh’s fighter is quite interesting. Bidarian’s business partner, Jake Paul, doesn’t have the best relationship with Alalshikh, who caused the cancellation of Paul’s early 2025 fight against Canelo Alvarez. Alalshikh threatened Alvarez to cancel the four-fight deal he had signed last year if he fought Jake Paul. 

Bidarian’s push to line up Verhoeven as an opponent for Ngannou could easily be interpreted as a form of payback—but that may not necessarily be the case. It’s also worth noting that Ngannou and Verhoeven go back a long way, having trained together and built a mutual familiarity over the years. A potential clash between the two has been discussed repeatedly, yet it has never come to fruition. Even so, Verhoeven wasn’t the only name considered as a possible opponent for Ngannou.

Mirko Cro Cop was offered a fight against Francis Ngannou

MMA legend and former UFC star Mirko Cro Cop recently revealed that he was approached with a surprising offer to face Francis Ngannou in a fight. Now 51 and retired since 2019 after suffering a stroke, Cro Cop made it clear he couldn’t take the proposal seriously.

“I said, ‘What do you mean, did you say fight?” Cro Cop told RMC Sports Combat. “Did you use the word fight or did you use the word playing cards, chess, swimming, running? You mean fight?’ … I started laughing.”

Cro Cop emphasized that, given his current condition, Ngannou would be the last opponent he’d consider. He even joked about demanding $500,000 for himself and $19.5 million for his mother just to see her reaction, highlighting how unrealistic the situation felt to him.

However, when Ngannou was asked whether he knew of anyone else who might have been approached by MVP to fight him, Ngannou claimed he wasn’t aware. 

“On top of my head, no, he was on Friday, and then I’ll tell them to bring me something on Monday to sleep on it. So we get some rest,” Ngannou told Helwani. “And honestly, there [weren’t] so many, it’s not like the option was so many out there. It’s hard to find fighters [who] are free from promotional agreements at this level.”

It appears Francis Ngannou would have loved to fight Rico Verhoeven. However, he was a little too late to the game, and Verhoeven turned out to be a man of his word. Would you have wanted to watch that fight?