3 things we learned from the Francis Ngannou Battle of the Giants presser

On Thursday the Professional Fighters League hosted the Battle of the Giants press conference from Washington DC. The event, slated for Oct. 19 will be headlined by former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and 2022 PFL heavyweight champion Renan Ferreira. In the co-main event is former UFC champion and current Bellator champion Cris "Cyborg" Justino vs. PFL's only double champion Larissa Pacheco. Here are three things we took away from the press conference overall.

Francis Ngannou disputes UFC's version of Jon Jones negotiations

We may never know what really happened behind closed doors between Jon Jones, Ngannou, Dana White, and the UFC brass. Each part of the equation has conflicting versions and no one seems to be backing down anytime soon. White and Jones have maintained that Ngannou didn't want to fight Jones, but at the PFL Battle of the Giants presser, Ngannou debunked those statements.

“I think that’s the new narrative since he needs to say something either way,” Ngannou said. “As far as I’m concerned, it was Jon Jones that didn’t want to fight me — according to them. So many times we sit down on the meeting, [they said] ‘oh it can’t happen, Jon Jones doesn’t want to fight anymore. He’s living in Albuquerque, he’s living his small life, he has a lot of money in his bank account.’ I think the guy who controls the narrative can say whatever he wants. But that’s just the narrative.”

Battle of the Giants will take place in Saudi Arabia

When the event was announced only the date plus the main and co-main events were released. Now we know the event will take place at The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We all assumed that's where the event would be, but now it's official.

Francis Ngannou & Renan Ferreira got physical at their first faceoff 

At first, the two men appeared to be laughing and joking with each other but then things got physical when Ngannou began touching Ferreira's muscles and then Ferreira pounded on the chest of Ngannou before being separated by none other than Jake Paul.