15 hours Ago By George Glinski
Francis Ngannou took a fitness influencer's best punches to the midriff without so much as a grimace. The Cameroonian cage fighter is just days away from making his long-awaited return to MMA this weekend at PFL Super Fights: Battle of the Giants. He is set to take on 2023 PFL heavyweight tournament winner Renan Ferreira for the inaugural PFL Super Fight strap in the main event of a stacked card in Saudi Arabia .
Ngannou hasn't stepped foot inside the cage since successfully defending the UFC heavyweight crown against Ciryl Gane in January 2022. Since then, Ngannou has split with the UFC and has focused his energy on boxing; coming up short in two high-profile bouts against Brits Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua . But now he is back in the sport where it all started.
As part of his pre-fight promotional duties, Ngannou took part in a body shot challenge with YouTuber Will Tennyson - which proved to be an entertaining watch. Tennyson has over 3 million subscribers and most of his content centres around weightlifting. But for the purpose of the video, Tennyson tried his hand at MMA by as he was put through his paces by Ngannou's striking coach Dewey Cooper.
The next day Tennyson turned up at Ngannou's gym and was tasked with putting everything he had learnt into motion by partaking in a body shot challenge with the lineal heavyweight king. Unfortunately for Tennyson, it didn't work out in his favour. As the fitness influencer unloaded a tame right hook into Ngannou's stomach, 'The Predator' quipped: "Is that all?" Determined to cause a dent, Tennyson swung again but Ngannou wasn't impressed by the content creator's power.
"Go harder...
My sister hits harder than that, come on," he laughed. Tennyson threw a few more half-hearted hooks before stopping due to embarrassment. But to his credit, he took it well.
"Can you at least act a little bit?" he joked. "I'm going to break my hand. I've got to give up, I give up.
" Tennyson shouldn't be too disheartened by the experience. Even Ryan Garcia wasn't able to get a reaction out of Ngannou when he unloaded several full-pelt shots at the African puncher's body four years ago..
