Randy Couture believes Francis Ngannou signing with PFL makes them the clear number two promotion

UFC Hall of Famer and current PFL commentator, Randy Couture believes the PFL is the clear number two promotion after signing Francis Ngannou.

After Ngannou fought out his UFC deal, he made it clear he wanted to box but also wanted to continue his MMA career. After months of negotiating, Ngannou signed with the Professional Fighters League, which was a huge acquisition for the promotion. With that, Couture says this is just the first step in becoming the biggest MMA promotion.

“It’s exciting, this brand and this promotion are exploding. Obviously, we have moved into the number two spot in the US market which is very interesting,” Couture said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “We just launched PFL Europe and had our first two shows there and sold them out immediately. Obviously headed to Saudi Arabia to talk to the Saudis about PFL Middle East, we signed Francis Ngannou for the pay-per-view model that will be rolling out next year and they made him the chairman of PFL Africa. This company is just exploding for all the right reasons. We also sat down with five gentlemen from Australia who are interested in PFL Australia, so it’s a fun time to be involved… I think part of that is people are disenchanted with what is going on with the other promotions.”

Along with Francis Nagnnou signing with the PFL, he also negotiated that his opponent gets a minimum course of $2 million for the fight.

RELATED: Francis Ngannou’s manager says they got very close to re-signing with the UFC at certain points.

According to Randy Couture, he believes that will make free agency interesting for heavyweights as he thinks many will be interested in that payday and getting a chance to face Ngannou.

“I guess we will see, won’t we? It’s there everybody knows it and it’s public knowledge,” Couture said. “It’s going to be interesting to see what some of these guys do as we move and roll out its pay-per-view model. I think a lot of free agents will be interested for sure.”

Yet, if Couture was going to pick Ngannou’s PFL debut opponent, he thinks reigning champ, Ante Delija makes a lot of sense and would be a fun matchup for fans to watch.

“Last year we saw Ante Delija when he came to the PFL was a highly-touted signing and recruit, the UFC was chasing him, Bellator was chasing him and he choose the PFL,” Couture concluded. “It didn’t go well for him out of the gate, he ended up getting beat but he made the adjustments with this format, and last year he was our champ. He looked great and comes out of Mirko Cro Cop’s camp, so I would love to see him and Francis fight. That would be a fun one to watch.”