Chatri Sityodtong appeared on The MMA Hour yesterday and told Ariel Helwani that negotiations with Francis Ngannou are progressing. He is planning to meet with the former UFC heavyweight champion in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Chatri is in the US for ONE Fight Night 10. The event is set for the 1stBank Centre in Broomfield and will be his promotion’s first ever show in the country.
He appeared on The MMA Hour and among the topics for discussion was Ngannou. The Cameroonian entered free agency as the UFC heavyweight champion and has been in talks with all the major promotions.
ONE Championship has made him ‘the biggest offer’ according to Chatri,
He has a bunch of offers on the table, he’s waiting for our final offer. I’m going to meet Francis this Saturday. He and I will sit down and talk, For sure ONE can give him the biggest offer on the table out of all his bids but it has to work for him and it has to work for us as well.
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Big week
ONE Championship has a big heavyweight fight coming up. Arjan Bhullar and Anatoly Malykhin will face off to unify the heavyweight titles on July 15th.
Bhullar is the regular champion while Malykhin holds the interim belt. The Russian is undefeated and if he can unify the titles a bout with Ngannou would be a huge draw.
But first he has to beat Bhullar at ONE Fight Night 12. The fight has been in the works for over a year now and keeps getting postponed for reasons ranging from fighter injuries to shifting broadcast commitments.
Next week will be a big week for ONE Championship with the promotion putting on its inaugural US event. Seven days before the fight card begins Chatri will be meeting with Ngannou and hoping to secure the free signature of the most eligible free agent in the sport.
If his meeting with Ngannou goes well then Chatri might also have a big announcement up his sleeve by the end of the week. Watch this space!
